


Ruby Rose and the Creeps at the Castle

by vividder



Series: RWBY HP AU [3]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, RWBY
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Harry Potter Setting, Book 3: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-02
Updated: 2019-01-02
Packaged: 2019-10-03 01:57:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 20
Words: 23,133
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17274926
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vividder/pseuds/vividder
Summary: Back for their third year at Hogwarts, Ruby and her friends  must confront Boggarts, Dementors...and their pasts.





	1. Year Three

Wizarding Britain was the sort of place in which people left their windows open for the owls to fly through, which described exactly what happened when Taiyang got a letter one summer afternoon.

“What is it, dad?” Ruby asked from where she sat in the other room, comic book on her lap.  

Taiyang finished scanning the pages, looking them over twice before turning to his youngest daughter.  “Professor Ozpin wants to know if I can teach Defense Against the Dark Arts this year.”

Ruby jumped up and clapped her hands, her book falling to the floor.  “Say yes!”   
Taiyang couldn’t help but laugh at his daughter’s excitement.  “There’s still a few details that have to be ironed out.”

“Oh my god, it would be so awesome if you taught Defense!”  Ruby ran down the hallway to her and Yang’s shared bedroom. “Yang!  Dad got asked to teach Defense Against the Dark Arts!”

“You totally need to do it!” Yang exclaimed, following her sister into the living room.  “A real, live Auror teaching us! We’ll get to hear so many stories, learn so many cool things!”

“All we learned last year was not to set pixies loose,” Ruby added.  “Please?”

“I’ve still got a lot to think about,” Taiyang reminded them.

 

A few weeks later, he accepted the position.

 

Throughout the summer, Ruby and Yang had been saving their money for a pet.   Taiyang figured that, at thirteen, they should be responsible enough not to kill it within the year.  As long as he didn’t have to feed it or clean up after it, the girls could get something small when they went shopping for their school supplies.

Their trip to Diagon Alley for school supplies that year ended at the Magical Creature Emporium, a large store containing all sorts of animals, from baby giant squids, to flobberworms, to owls.  The girls walked through the aisles, looking at everything and chattering excitedly about which animal they should get.

Quickly, they narrowed it down to a bird.  Being able to send mail without having to pay for a school owl would be handy, and Taiyang agreed.

“Ruby, look at that,” Yang said, grabbing her sister’s arm and pointing.  Her voice lowered in awe as she spotted a raven, sitting majestically within a bronze cage, its intelligent crimson eyes sparkling as it took in the scene.

“Oh, he’s so pretty!”

“She, actually,” the salesclerk said.  “Ravens are quite intelligent birds, historically, they’re associated with witches rather than wizards, as owls were seen as unfit companions for women.  You’d be able to train her more extensively than an owl, too.”

Taiyang looked warily at the bird.  “I’m not sure about this. Didn’t you guys want an owl?”

“Ravens are currently on an upswing in popularity as pets,” the salesclerk explained.  “In fact, I’ve sold a few others to other Hogwarts students. Their ability to be trained means they can either take mail or live in the dorms with the students.”

“Please?” Yang asked.  “We only wanted an owl for the mail.  A raven is so much cooler than an owl.”

“Plus, you could be sure we’d take care of it because it’d be right there in our dorm!” Ruby added.  “There’s no way we’d just forget her up in the owlery.”

“Yeah, don’t keep her in the owlery,” the man agreed, pushing his glasses up his nose.  

“You told us that we could pick whatever animal we wanted, so long as we could pay for it, take care of it, and that it was allowed at Hogwarts.  We want a raven,” Yang argued. 

“Fine,” Taiyang said, looking the bird dead in the eyes.  

 

When they got home, the girls took the bird back into their bedroom.  They then returned to the living room to grab books on mythology and legends from the shelves, and returned to their room, where they sat in there for hours, discussing.

“Morrigan,” Ruby announced when they emerged.  “Her name is Morrigan Rose.”

 

Their little family arrived at Hogwarts before the train, Ruby and Yang giving the bird bits of jewelry and other small, shiny objects to keep it entertained.  They were still enamored by their pet, wanting to play with her as often as possible.

 

Ruby and Yang joined everyone for the feast, taking their seats with Blake, Ren, Nora, and Jaune at the Gryffindor table and sharing stories about their summers with everyone.  “Did you hear about Qrow Branwen?” Nora asked. “The escaped prisoner?”

They had, of course.

“I heard he killed an entire town with a single spell,” Jaune added.  “Just, BAM! And everyone died.”

“But that’s impossible,” Ren said.  “The amount of power that would take…”

Throughout the conversation, Yang seemed to pay an inordinate amount of attention to her food.  She knew that her mother’s last name had been Branwen.

And she hated that the criminal consuming everyone’s attention shared it with her.

But the chatter didn’t last much longer, to her relief. It ended abruptly when Professor Ozpin stood to give his yearly speech.  

“Welcome, everyone, to another year at Hogwarts.  Let me begin with some announcements.” He cleared his throat and surveyed the room, waiting for the students to give him their undivided attention.

“This year, the Ministry of Magic has placed Dementors around the ground as part of an ongoing investigation.  They are stationed at every entrance and exit to the property. Please do not interfere with or attempt to subvert them.  Dementors are creatures, not people, despite how they appear. They will not understand your pleading and will suck your soul from your body the moment they perceive you as a threat.  Neither can you fool them with disguises, tools, or spells.” He paused for a moment, his piercing gaze making it clear that these statements weren’t to be defied.

“On another note, I am pleased to welcome Professor Xiao Long as our Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher this year, and Professor Hagrid as our Care of Magical Creatures teacher this year.”

As the rest of the cafeteria clapped politely, Yang jumped up and cheered, earning her a few startled looks from the table behind the Gryffindors’.

“As always, I expect hard work this year.  You will need to do so if you wish to fulfill your true potential as wizards and witches at Hogwarts.”

And with that, dessert appeared on their tables.


	2. Divination

“So wait,” Yang began, grabbing a sausage off of one of the platters on the long table, “tell me again about the Dementors on the train?”  Everyone had gathered together again the next morning, not having had enough time at dinner to finish sharing their stories from their summer.

“The train just stopped and they...got on,” Blake said, choosing her word carefully.  “It just felt so cold.”

“Like I’d never be happy or comfortable again,” Jaune commented, staring into his juice.  “I hate those things.”

Just then, a Prefect came around and handed them their schedules.  Everyone eagerly took them, comparing to see who all had classes together.

“We’ve got Divination first,” Yang said.

“Care of Magical Creatures is after lunch!” Nora exclaimed.  “Professor Hagrid. It just sounds so professional!”

“I have arithmancy then,” Blake said.  “Didn’t Care of Magical Creatures have the biting books?”

Jaune put his head in his hands.  “Yep. And now I just remembered that I left it in my room.  See you in Divination, guys.” He got up and ran back towards Gryffindor Tower.

“Speaking of Divination, has anyone been to the North Tower before?” Ren asked.

Nobody had.

“Guess we’d better get going!” Nora exclaimed, and bent to gather her things.

 

They arrived in the dimly-lit, hot and steamy classroom already soaked with sweat from climbing several staircases and at least one ladder to reach the attic-like classroom, which was stuffed full of tiny tables, armchairs, and ottomans to sit on.

“We’re gonna die in here,” Yang moaned as she, Ruby, and Blake sat at one table, while Nora, Ren, and Jaune sat adjacent to them.

“Preach,” Nora muttered.

But their complaints ended there as Professor Trelawney emerged from the trapdoor in the floor.  “Welcome, children. It is a pleasure to meet you in the physical world at last.”

With her long, flowing, ostentatious robes and showy jewelry, she looked like a caricature of a fortune teller, and she spoke like one too, in a breathy voice.

“You probably have not encountered me before at Hogwarts.  I tend not to descend from my tower, as the chaos below interferes with the workings of the Inner Eye.  I am Professor Trelawney, and it is my pleasure to introduce you to the most difficult magical art of Divination.”

She began to walk between the tables.  “Books, after all, can only take you so far.  The Second Sight is a gift only few possess--which many find to be a curse rather than a blessing.”  Professor Trelawney stopped behind Jaune’s chair. “Your third youngest sister, she is recovering well?” 

“Uh, yeah.”

Professor Trelawney tsked.  “I’d suggest you stay in touch with your family.”

Understandably, Jaune looked concerned.

“In our first term, we will cover the reading of tea leaves, and in our second term, palmistry.  Then, after Christmas, we will progress to fire omens and the crystal ball, but only if we have time.  February will leave many of us bedridden with the flu, and I will lose my voice. By Easter, one of our number will have gone forever.”  She fell silent to let that dramatic statement set in.

She grabbed a large, silver teapot off of a shelf before moving to stand behind Blake.  “Dear, what you dread will occur on Friday, October 16th.”

Blake’s cat ears twitched and she looked perturbed by the pronouncement, but Trelawney had moved on to explaining the reading of the tea leaves, telling Jaune to use the blue cups if he wouldn’t mind, because he’d be breaking at least one during the lesson.

Everyone lined up to have tea poured in their cups.  Some splashed on Jaune’s wrist and he dropped his teacup, just as predicted.  Trelawney pointed Jaune towards a broom and dustpan kept in the corner of her room, presumably just for incidents like this, and kept pouring tea.

Ruby and Yang drank their tea, then switched cups with each other.  Ruby went first, consulting the table of image descriptions in her textbook as she twisted Yang’s teacup in her hand.  “It kinda looks like an upside-down cross,” she said, and turned to the pages open between them on the table, “which is great suffering.”  She turned the cup some more. “But this thing there looks like a sun, which means happiness. So you’re going to suffer and be happy.”

Yang laughed at the ridiculous prediction.  “Your Inner Eye needs glasses, Ruby.”

They giggled, then Ruby handed her cup to Yang.

“It looks kind of like a fedora,” she decided.  “Maybe you’ll be a spy.” She turned the cup some more.  “Huh, I think it’s a giraffe or something.”

“May I see that?” Professor Trelawney had come up behind them.

“Sure,” Yang said, and handed the cup over.

Trelawney examined the cup for a few moments.  “The falcon...you have a deadly enemy,” she proclaimed.  Her announcement caught the attention of those near their table, who turned and watched as she rotated the cup.  “The club...an attack...the skull...impending danger…”

Upon turning the cup a final time, she shrieked at what she saw, dropping the cup and collapsing into an empty armchair.  Nora fell off her stool, arms and legs flailing as she was suddenly roused from sleep. Her cup broke too, and she sheepishly crept towards the shelf to grab another.  “Sorry,’ she whispered.

“My dear, you have the Spectre!” Trelawney cried dramatically. “The raven which appears shortly before a death occurs, waiting to feast on the flesh of a fresh corpse!  Oh, what a terrible, terrible omen!”

“That didn’t look like a raven to me,” Yang whispered to Ruby, but her younger sister was transfixed by their Professor.

“I suppose that we shall need to end our lesson for today,” Trelawney said, standing.  “I need to contemplate what I have just Seen. Please put away your things and push in your chairs.”

A class ending early should have been an exciting event, but instead, everyone avoided eye contact and spoke in whispers.

 

Professor Goodwitch caught on to her students’ inattention right away when her normally-engaging lesson about Animangi didn’t receive the interest it normally did as students envisioned themselves transforming into exotic animals.

“Your behavior is quite unusual today, students,” Goodwitch said, rapping on her desk with her wand.  “Previous classes have found today’s lecture quite engaging.”

No one knew how to answer that.  Finally, Yang spoke up. “We had Divination right before this class--”

Professor Goodwitch rolled her eyes.  “Of course, Miss Xiao Long. Which student is going to die this year?”

“Me,” Ruby said quietly, raising her hand.

Goodwitch shook her head.  “This happens every year. Every year, Professor Trelawney says that a student will die.  Come June, that student is always still alive. So I wish to reassure you, Miss Rose, that you have nothing to worry about except the essay I’ll be assigning at the end of class.”

Everyone groaned at that one.

 

“But have you seen a raven recently?” Nora asked Ruby at lunch.

“You’re all being ridiculous!” Blake snapped.  “Ruby owns a raven, remember? It’s in a cage! In our dorm!”

“I just want to be sure!” Nora shot back.  “There’s just all sorts of tales...people seeing ravens, and then they just die.  It’s sorta scary that that’s what was in her cup.”

“Guess we’re just all gonna die then,” Blake said with a shrug.  “Living with a raven, how dumb could we be, when literally generations of witches used to keep them because owls were only for men!”

Yang intervened before the argument could escalate further. “So, I take it you’re not a fan of divination, Blake?”

“Oh god no.”  Blake rolled her eyes.  “Looking for random patterns in cups is not magic.  It’s not logic. It’s just guesswork. And everything else is probably coincidence.” And with that, she left for Arithmancy.


	3. The Hippogriff

They had Care of Magical Creatures with the Slytherins.  Hagrid had them gathered outside a paddock near his cottage, inside of which a majestic creature was tied on a lead.  Its back half was a horse, and its front half seemed to be a huge eagle. Its intelligent orange eyes took in the crowd, studying the students the same way they studied it.  

“Now, let’s begin by openin’ yer texts--” Hagrid began before someone interrupted him.

“How?” Weiss Schnee asked.  “They bite.”

“No one can open their books?” Hagrid looked disappointed at the sea of shaking heads before him.  He took Weiss’s book from her arms and pulled off the ropes binding it. “Yeh’ve got to stroke it,” Hagrid explained, running a hand down the book’s spine, and it fell open, lifeless, in his giant palm.  He handed the book back to Weiss, who nervously petted the pages.

“Oh, we’re stupid!” Cardin called.  “Stroking a book is the first thing you do before you open it! Of course!”

Ruby saw Weiss clench her teeth, but not move.  She glanced down.

“I thought it was clever,” Hagrid said.

“Oh, incredibly clever.  How can we handle magical creatures if we have no hands?”

Yang stepped forward and onto Cardin’s foot.

“This is a hippogriff,” Hagrid began once the mocking had stopped.  “Now, Hippogriffs are proud. You can’t insult ‘em, because it’ll be the last thing you ever do.  You always let a hippogriff make the first move, and you always be respectful. Bow to them first.  If they bow back, then you can touch them. If they don’t, you back away or else you’ll get to feel their talons.”  He surveyed the nervous students. “Who wants to go first?”

After a few moments of silence, Ruby raised her hand. “I will.”

Gasping and whispers followed her as Hagrid let her into the paddock. 

She bowed to the hippogriff, as instructed by Hagrid.  After standing straight, she felt its eyes looking over her, its intense, piercing gaze analyzing her like a piece of prey.  

“You might want to stand back,” Hagrid offered quietly.

But at that moment, the great bird head lowered to Ruby.

“Go on!” Hagrid urged.  “Pet his beak.”

Ruby stepped forward and nervously patted the beak.  The hippogriff’s eyes narrowed as it got more comfortable, and Ruby found her small pats becoming longer strokes.  “You’re so handsome,” she whispered.

“I think he’d let you ride him,” Hagrid said.  “Just climb on behind the wing joints. Make sure you don’t pull out any feathers.”

Carefully, Ruby did as she was told, very surprised when she wasn’t tossed off.  The hippogriff’s lead was longer than it looked, and the hippogriff took off, jolting Ruby down to her bones and she panicked a little as she struggled to hold on.  The hippogriff flew in a circle around the paddock, and its wings left friction burn up and down her legs with every beat. Finally, the creature landed, the force of impact nearly throwing Ruby off its back.

“Well done, Ruby!” Hagrid began to clap, and the rest of the class joined in.  The hippogriff bowed, and Ruby slid off, running to rejoin the crowd of students and wincing at her scratched-up legs.

“I want to go next,” Cardin called before anyone else could ask.

“All right.”  Hagrid let him into the paddock, a worrying swagger Cardin’s step.

“Now bow to him,” Hagrid instructed.

Cardin did, but not silently and reverentially, like Ruby had.  “‘Don’t insult the bird,’” he mocked quietly. “It’s not like you can understand me, you great--”

And with that, the hippogriff lashed out, lunging forward towards Cardin and slashing at him with his talons.

Hagrid ran forward to hold the hippogriff back while Cardin fell to the ground, yowling.  Hagrid scooped him up in his arms as Cardin made a great show of being in agony. Blood dripped across his robes from his wounded arm.  The students still stood by, shocked at the sudden turn of events.

“Just typical!” Lark growled over the quiet mutters.  “What on Earth was Ozpin thinking when he let that oaf teach?”

“Probably not that Cardin would mouth off to a Hippogriff,” Yang shouted back.

“I hope he’s okay,” Nora was saying to Ren.  “They can’t fire him for that, can they?”

“I don’t think so.  Not so soon, at least.”

 

That night, Weiss sat in the Slytherin common room across from her brother Whitley, a first year who had just had his first day.

“I can’t believe that you got to witness such incompetence, sister,” Whitley told her.  “That half-breed could have gotten Cardin killed. Doesn’t he realize that some of us have fathers on the board?”

“I think Hagrid is aware of that, yes, Whitley.”

“After that whole affair with that girl and the Chamber last year, perhaps Ozpin is finally showing his age.  Clearly, he can’t choose competent staff.”

Weiss looked up from her parchment.  “Do you not have homework, Whitley? Or do I need to tell Dad that all you do is gossip?”

“Come on, Weiss.  Did you tell Father what happened?  Surely he’d want to know.”

“I have a letter drafted.  I’ll send it out the next time I go up to the owlery.  Is that good enough for you?” Weiss’s eyes narrowed.

“I’m just concerned is all.  You know, you’re supposed to be watching out for me.  Family gives us power, after all.”

“Whitley, family lets their sisters do their homework,” Weiss insisted, flicking droplets of ink from her quill onto her brother’s new robes.

He scoffed in disgust at the stains and ran off to change.  She returned to her work.

 

Ruby and Yang sat in their room, watching Morrigan from their beds as they worked on their Transfiguration papers, sharing books they’d gotten out of the library with each other.

“Does it bother you that your mom was related to that criminal they’re trying to catch?” Ruby asked her.

Yang shrugged one shoulder.  “I mean, I never knew her. She left after I was born and died before I could meet her.  I don’t like people thinking of me as being related to him, but it’s not like I ever met him.  Or her, for that matter.”

“I wish you could have met your mom when you had the chance, Yang.”  Ruby seemed to get lost in thought, and Yang felt a sudden pang of jealousy that Ruby even had a mother to meet.

“Me too, Ruby.”

 

Nora dragged Ren out of the castle to check on Hagrid that evening.  When he answered the door to his tiny hutch, he was obviously drunk.

“I suspect it’s a record,” he slurred once they’d sat at his table, Fang snuggling up against Nora.  “I don’ think they’ve ever had a teacher last jus’ one day before.”

“Is Cardin okay?” Ren asked as he put on a pot of tea.

“Well, Madame Pomfrey said it looked worse than it was, fixed it right up, but Cardin still says it hurts.”  Hagrid looked so downtrodden that Nora went over to the other side of the table and gave him a hug as Ren hunted around the kitchen.

“We’ll back you up, Hagrid.  There were loads of witnesses.”

“Cardin shouldn’t have insulted the hippogriff,” Ren added, bringing a plate of cookies over to the table.

As Hagrid turned to Ren, he seemed to really notice their presence for the first time.  “Are you two bloody serious?” Hagrid’s voice turned to a frustrated growl.

“What?” Nora asked.

“YOU SHOULDN’T HAVE COME HERE AFTER DARK!” Hagrid roared at them.  “I’M NOT WORTH YOUR SAFETY, NOT WITH THOSE DEMENTORS RUNNING AROUND!” He stood up and glared at them.  “Come on.”

And with that, he marched them back up to the castle.


	4. Potions

Cardin returned to class the next day, coming late to double Potions with the Gryffindors with his arm all bandaged up and in a sling.

“Bet your scar isn’t as cool as mine,” Nora taunted him from across the room.  She had a long, faded red line going from her hip, twisting up across her stomach and chest, ending several inches below her collarbone.  She’d gotten it in an encounter with a Basilisk during the previous year.

But Professor Oobleck intervened before Cardin could respond.  “Everyone, settle down and continue working on the Shrinking Solution.  Winchester, the instructions are on page 57 of your textbook.”

“Sir, I’m going to need help cutting up the ingredients, you know, because of my arm,” Cardin volunteered.

Weiss raised her hand.  “I’ll help, Professor.”

“Very well then.  Miss Schnee has kindly volunteered to assist you.  Off you go, then, and five points to Slytherin for cooperating with each other.”

Winchester walked over to where Weiss stood on her own at a table, her ingredients neatly piled up as she prepared the potion.  She pushed them over to him wordlessly.

“What an unfortunate injury.  I can’t imagine Hagrid will last long after my father reports this to the school governors,” Winchester said.  “One of which is your father, if I remember correctly.”

“You remember correctly,” Weiss replied, not pausing in her preparation of her own ingredients.  She wished she could say more, and would have, if not for Whitley, her younger brother. The rat was always waiting, always watching.  He needed her to slip up if he wanted to be the heir to the Schnee family fortune, and boy, did he ever want their family’s money and prestige.

The responsibility of upholding her family’s legacy had fallen to Weiss after her sister had been disowned for choosing to attend their mother’s alma mater, Beauxbatons.  

And now things were down to the wire, as her own freedom had become drastically limited by her brother’s presence.  Weiss found it more difficult than ever to live her ideals of what a Slytherin should be, and found herself forced to conform to the prevalent ideals of her house, lest word of her actions get back to her father from her snitching brother.

“I’m sure your father would appreciate your account as a witness to this tragic incident,” Cardin commented, trying to act casual.

Weiss glared at him.  “As I already told my brother, I am drafting my account of the events from yesterday and I plan to send it to my father shortly.”

Cardin smiled at her.  “You look quite pretty today, Weiss.”

“Thanks,” Weiss said, pushing past him to wipe down her workstation with a wet cloth while her potion brewed.

 

Elsewhere in the room, other conversations occurred.

“Did you hear that Qrow Branwen was sighted yesterday?” Nora asked Yang quietly as she borrowed some measuring containers from her and Blake’s table.  

“Where?” Yang asked.

“In a muggle town a few miles down the mountain,” Nora whispered.  “They just called the normal police hotline. By the time the Aurors arrived, he was already gone.”

Yang nodded absently, returning to her table near Blake.

“Maybe Yang doesn’t want to know where he is,” Ren suggested gently as he noticed Yang’s faraway look.

“That would make sense...but I still feel like I have to tell her,” Nora said sadly.  “It’s just, they deserve to know, don’t they?”

“Maybe this is something they’d rather find out from their father.”  Ren stirred his potion.


	5. Defense Against the Dark Arts

Instead of having their first lecture in the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom, Xiao Long met the students in an unused classroom on the third floor, empty except for dust bunnies and a wardrobe, the contents of which thumped worryingly as they moved about.

The students gathered far away from it.

The lesson began right on time as Professor Xiao Long strode into the room.  “Relax. It’s only a Boggart. They tend to like dark, enclosed spaces. This one moved in over the summer and Professor Ozpin let it stay so I could give you some practice.  Now, who can tell me what a boggart is. Jaune?”

Jaune opened his mouth, then shook his head.  “Sorry.”

“No worries.  Blake?”

“A shapeshifter,” she answered confidently.  “It shows us whatever we fear most.”

“Exactly!” Professor Xiao Long continued.  “So, no one knows what a boggart looks like when it’s not being observed.  But that’s not our concern here. We’re going to worry about what it does when it gets out.  Does anyone have a guess?”

Someone squeaked nervously.

Ren spoke up.  “It won’t know what to do with so many different fears?”

“Right.  Boggarts get confused, and that makes it easier for us to defeat them.  There is a spell specifically for dispelling boggarts, but I’m not going to tell you about it yet.  The thing that really gets rid of a Boggart is up here.” He tapped at his temple. “What’s in your mind.  Once you no longer fear the Boggart, it loses the power it has over you. So for that, the charm is Riddikulus.”

They practiced it several times without their wands.

“Now, let’s begin.  I’ll demonstrate first, and then it will be up to you.  While you’re waiting, think of how you can transform your fears into something funny, something that doesn’t really matter.”

Professor Xiao Long walked right up to the wardrobe and used a spell to open the lock.  The doors clattered open, and Ruby lay motionless on the ground as monsters (Grimm, Ruby recognized), approached her, poised to attack.

“Riddikulus!” her dad shouted, and suddenly the monsters had become dogs and cats, playfully jumping on Ruby’s illusory form as she laughed and cuddled them in return.

“Blake!” Taiyang shouted, skipping back as Blake ran forward, wand raised.

A man, dressed in elaborate black and red robes and a mask, carrying a knife, appeared in front of the class.

“Riddikulus!” she screamed, and the man appeared in his underwear, holding a pinwheel.  He looked shocked at what had happened. The rest of the class joined her in laughing at the ridiculous image in front of them.

“Nora!”

The girls switched places.  The Boggart became a huge snake, the fangs dripping with venom.

“Riddikulus!”

The snake became a toy, which fell limply to the ground.

“Jaune!”

Jaune took Nora’s place.  A young girl in a thin gown appeared, her skin dangerously pale, nearly bluish.  

“Riddikulus,” Jaune choked out, a sob caught in his throat.  The second time came louder. “Riddikulus!”

The girl sat up and laughed, wiping the color off with a towel and looking much more like a normal, healthy kid.

“Ruby!”

An orb appeared, red and black lines tracing patterns across the globe.  Tentacles emerged from the bottom of the globe, each with a talon on the end.

“Riddikulus!” she shouted, and the orb became a snow globe with a snowman in it, the tentacles turning to ribbons.

“Yang!”

Ruby appeared, laying unnaturally still.

“Riddikulus!” Ruby sat up and laughed and laughed, the rest of the class joining her.

“Ren!”

Ren ran forward and and saw a man, his body slumped over as blood gushed from a wound on his chest.  “Riddikulus,” Ren nearly whispered, and he had to say it again for the spell to take effect.

The man stood and wrapped a beautiful woman in his arms, lifting her off the ground as she laughed, and the boggart vanished.

“Well, looks like you kids are naturals at this,” Professor Xiao Long said, rewarding Gryffindor points for those who were best at dispelling the Boggart.  “I look forward to seeing you guys next week. And remember to read up on Redcaps!” he reminded them as the students rushed out the door.

 

Yang and Ruby cornered Blake in their room that evening.  “Who was that guy the Boggart turned into?” Yang asked.

Blake looked away, fumbling with something in her trunk.  “Nothing. You know, just a general fear of being chased and stabbed.”  She turned back to them. “Why?”

Yang’s face reddened.  “Just worried about you is all.  I wanted to make sure no one was, you know--”

“Hurting me?  No, I’m fine,” Blake said, unfolding a shirt, refolding it, and putting it back in her trunk.


	6. Letters

Weiss had to send something to her father.  He’d heard by now that she’d witnessed the incident with Cardin and had neglected to inform him, for which he’d sent her an absolutely scathing letter.

Now she was headed to the owlery to post her own.

She’d written out the account accurately, and had stated that she had done so, but she was very much aware that it wouldn’t match Cardin’s account.

More than likely, she’d get more scathing letters soon.

 

One morning, at breakfast, Blake got a letter, which she opened carefully and read over, her eyes widening as she took in the message before her.

Ruby noticed her first.  “Blake, is everything okay?”

“Our house got broken into,” she said, sounding shocked.  “Everyone’s okay, it seems like. The Aurors are pretty sure it was revenge for what my father has done as the leader of the White Fang.  Kind of a like a final, ‘screw you’ to us, since he’s not their leader anymore.” She refolded the letter and set it by her plate.

“That’s terrible!” Nora chimed in between bites of pancakes.  “But it’s October sixteenth, after all.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Yang asked.

“Professor Trelawney said that whatever you were dreading would happen today.  Your house just got broken into. So, were you worried about that?” Nora pointed at Blake with her fork.

Blake struggled with how to answer it.  “Well, it was always a possibility. Things can get pretty heated over civil rights debates, and people haven’t always liked Dad’s politics.  But I don’t think I was specifically worried about someone breaking into my house. I mean, my parents are fine, my mom said so in her letter.  So it wasn’t that bad at all, really. Right now I’d be more worried about Qrow Branwen, since he’s been spotted in the area.”

Nora nodded and looked away, as if deciding whether or not Trelawney had been right.


	7. Halloween at Hogsmeade

By Halloween, though, no one had a care in the world.  The’d be taking a trip to the wizarding village of Hogsmeade!  

Early that morning, Hagrid and Goodwitch lead the crowd of students through the gates of Hogwarts and they walked for forty minutes around the lake to the nearby town, Head Boys and Girls and other teachers creating a guard around the students, organized so that the youngest walked in the center and the eldest walked around the edge.

When they reached the town, Professor Goodwitch announced the rules: stay in groups of two or more at all times, don’t leave the main streets, and make good decisions.  But the students were too excited to focus on her instructions.

“Oh my god!” Nora said, jumping up and down on the balls of her feet.  “We have to go to Honeydukes!”

Everyone ended up chasing her down the street as she ran towards the candy shop.  Many other students had followed her train of thought, heading to the famous candy store straight away.  As such, it was crowded and everyone found themselves split up as they struggled to look at displays of Cockroach Clusters and Acid Pops.  

Ruby and Yang both bought bags full of candy, and so did Jaune.  Everything he seemed to see reminded him of one of his many sisters, and Blake had to help him gather his bags.  

“That was basically all of my lawn-mowing money from last summer,” Jaune said when they met with the others outside the store.  “So guess what everyone’s getting for Christmas?”

“I still can’t believe you’re nice enough to shop for all your sisters,” Yang replied.  “I barely remember to shop for Ruby!”

Just then, Nora and Ren came out of the store, Nora carrying one small bag.  “That was so awesome!” 

“With as much as you talked about this place, Nora, I thought you would have gotten more,” Yang said.  “Are you sure that’s all you wanted?”

“I’m good,” Nora said.  “You know, gotta save my appetite for the feast tonight.”  But something about her cheer rang false.

They headed across the street to the post office, where they sat and watched the birds fly, each one color-coded with an anklet demonstrating what type of mail and how fast the bird would take it as they munched on their treats.

“Muggle post offices aren’t this exciting,” Jaune informed them.  “Way less birds. Way more waiting in lines.”

They browsed most of the other stores, looking at potions ingredients, wizarding tools and appliances, magical plants and animals (“Not nearly as cool as Morrigan,” Ruby commented when they saw another raven), the joke shop, and peeked their heads in the little cafes and restaurants around the main drag.

They ended up in the Three Broomsticks, eating pot pies and drinking steaming mugs of butterbeer.  Yang picked up Jaune’s bill because he had spent all of his money, and he apologized profusely to her.

As they sat and talked in the relaxing warmth of the pub, a group of Slytherin girls walked by, and one of them dropped something under the table.  “Oh, shoot!” she said, and bent down to search. Her companions stood by and watched, but Ruby got down to join her.

Weiss Schnee stared at her underneath the table, raising one finger to her lips and slipping the other one out of her pocket to press a note into Ruby’s palm.

Weiss stood up, holding a small crystal.  “Sorry. Guess I should have kept this in my bag.”

The girls continued on their way out, and Ruby waited until they were out of sight before unfolding the paper.

“That was Weiss Schnee,” she told her friends.

Blake and Yang knew more about Weiss than the others, and respected her.  

“She’s not that bad for a Slytherin,” Jaune mused.

“She wants to meet me in an hour in the restroom at Gladrags,” Ruby said.  “She says she has to talk to me.”

 

So in an hour, Ruby found herself walking into the restroom at Gladrags.  Fifteen minutes later, Weiss also walked in, not bothering with hellos before grabbing Ruby’s arm and pulling her into the farthest stall from the door.

“Stand on the toilet,” she hissed.

“What?”

“Please, Ruby!  I can’t stay long! And they can’t know I’m here!”

Ruby put her feet up on the toilet seat and sat on the tank, more concerned than anything else.  It wasn’t like she was close to Weiss at all, but this behavior was seriously strange. “What is it, Weiss?”

“I just want to say I’m sorry in advance for anything I might say or do to you or any of you guys.”

“Why?”

Weiss listened for a moment.  “My brother just came to Hogwarts.  He writes Father about everything. Which means that my father now knows whatever I do, and if I don’t do exactly what he wants, he’ll pull me out of Hogwarts and disown me,” she whispered.  “So if I’m a jerk, sorry. As far as anyone’s concerned, we’re not friends.”

Ruby nodded.  “Do you need anything, Weiss?”

Weiss shook her head, but looked like she wanted to cry.  She reached out and gave Ruby a hug, perhaps the first physical contact that the two had ever shared.  Ruby, although confused and slightly off-balance, reciprocated. “Thanks. And tell Hagrid, if anything happens, that I never wanted him to get fired.  Now wait five minutes after I leave and then get out of the stall.”

So Ruby did, still confused.

When she met her friends in the front of the designer store, everyone wanted to know what Weiss had said, and Ruby told them.

“That’s rough,” Blake said.  

“Especially since she used to be all ‘Slytherin’s about ambition, not about elitism’,” Nora replied, watching the cobblestones under her feet as they walked towards the end of the main road and their meeting place.

“It’s just messed up no matter how you look at it.” Yang summarized the situation in just a sentence.


	8. Qrow in the Castle

The night seemed like it would end on a much more pleasant note after the Halloween feast, but when the Gryffindors found that they couldn’t enter the portrait hole, the entire tone of the evening changed.

Professor Ozpin came dashing down the hallway, surprisingly fast for his age, with Professor Goodwitch right on his heels.

“Glynda, take the students to the Great Hall, then find Filch and tell him we need to search the castle,” he ordered her, and she nodded stiffly.

“Students, come with me!” she called over the din of the crowd, and not knowing what else to do, the students followed her.

Not long after, the other houses joined the Gryffindors in milling about the empty banquet hall, not knowing what happened or what to do.

“We need to conduct a search of the castle for your own safety,” Professor Ozpin announced.  “For tonight, you’ll all be sleeping here. No one shall move into or out of the Great Hall tonight.  If you need to contact of the teachers, please let one of the ghosts know and they will alert us.”

With a wave of his wand, sleeping bags and pillows appeared on the floor, and as he left the room, the door shut with an ominous  _ BANG! _

Immediately, all the students started talking as the Head Girl and Head Boy started trying to get people to settle down.

Coco Adel, the Head Girl, was from Gryffindor and not afraid to make a scene.

“Oy!” she shouted, her voice magically amplified.  “Bedtime is in ten minutes, after which we expect you to be in a sleeping bag, by yourself, and staying quiet!  Good night!”

Everyone grabbed sleeping bags and pulled them together in groups.  “Do you think it was…?” Ruby whispered to Yang.

“No clue, but whatever it was has all the teachers scared.  Bad.”

“I’ve never seen Ozpin run like that,” Ren noted.

“We were really lucky,” Nora said, wiggling closer to her best friend.  “If we had been in the Tower, like every other night…” Nora drew her forefinger across her throat and dramatically pretended to die.  “But seriously, he must have forgotten it was Halloween or something.”

“Unless he intended to go into an empty dormitory,” Blake refuted her.  “In which case he knew exactly what was going on.”

“But why would he do that?” Ruby asked.

“Lights out in three, two...one!” Coco called and the candles all went out at once, bathing the hall in darkness.

 

Later that night, footsteps near her head woke Ruby.  She opened her eyes and saw Coco’s feet in front of her face.  “Find anything, Professor?” the Head Girl asked.

“I’m afraid not,” Professor Ozpin replied.  “How are the students?”

“Asleep, sir.”

“Good.  They can return to Gryffindor Tower tomorrow.  I’ve found another guardian for the portrait hole until the Fat Lady can be restored.”

“And is she well?”

“Shaken up, but not badly damaged.  Filch can restore her once she’s calmed down.”

More footsteps approached.  “We’ve cleared the third floor and the dungeons.  No sign of Branwen anywhere within the school,” Professor Oobleck whispered.

“It was a long shot, Bartholomew.  Good work. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to go and inform the Dementors that our search has been completed.”  Professor Ozpin took at most, a single step before being interrupted by Coco.

“You didn’t let them in the school, did you?”  Coco--easygoing, rich, and popular--actually sounded alarmed.

“Heavens no, Miss Adel.  None of those things shall pass the threshold of Hogwarts so long as I am Headmaster.”

And with that, three sets of footsteps went off into the darkness in three different directions.


	9. Quidditch Match

Gryffindor’s first Quidditch match came on a rainy Saturday, with fierce winds and rains soaking both the players and spectators to the bone before the game even began.

But Gryffindor had even more unexpected hurdles to overcome.

“We’re not playing against Slytherin today,” Oliver Wood, the Quidditch captain, told the Gryffindor team as they put on their gear in the locker room.  “Apparently their Seeker is still injured. Ravenclaw offered to take their place yesterday night, so that’s who we’ll be playing.”

Everyone grumbled at that.  While the Slytherin Seeker was quite frankly awful, Ravenclaw’s new Seeker, Pyrrha Nikos, looked like a natural for the part--her speed and agility on a broom had surprised even Madame Hooch, who hadn’t pegged Pyrrha as someone who would be able to fly like that.

And even after the match started, it turned out to be absolutely agonizing.  The noise of the crowd, the wind, and the rain muddled together, creating a dull roar around Ruby’s head so she couldn’t hear a thing.  Neither could she see, her flight goggles were so soaked. And with the wind, no one could control their brooms!

The sky became ever darker as the match dragged on, and soon, one distinct noise cut through the din.  Thunderclaps. Soon accompanied by the occasional burst of lightning.

This was actually getting dangerous, and apparently they weren’t calling it off.

Ruby had to find the Snitch.  She just absolutely needed to, because she couldn’t last much longer in the wet and cold.

But the roar around her had dulled, as if the crowd had stopped cheering.  The air suddenly became about ten degrees cooler too, and Ruby’s fingers ached as she struggled to keep a strong hold on her broom.

She looked down.  Dementors had flooded into the Quidditch pitch.  The black hooded figures, which Ruby had only glimpsed before, seemed to exude menace.

She saw two figures running through the crowd, two teachers dashing onto the pitch. Silver energy shot from the end of their wands like sunlight, lighting up the crowd and driving back the dementors, driving them back.

The fierce winds blew one of the figure’s hoods off, and Ruby recognized the shock of her father’s blonde hair.

Unfortunately, while she watched the spectacle below, Pyrrha had found the Snitch and caught it.  Ravenclaw and their supporters roared, but as the Dementors had started to leave of their own accord, Ruby swooped down to the pitch and ran towards her father, broom in one hand.  “Dad! Are you okay?”

“Perfectly fine.”  Taiyang looked off into the distance as the black forms faded into the rain and fog.  “I hate that those things are here.”

“Unfortunately, we all must play politics if we wish to stay in the game.” Ozpin spoke up from beside Taiyang, his wand down by his side.  “Although I will be writing a letter to the Ministry of Magic asking that they better manage their creatures. Having them around the grounds is bad enough, there is absolutely no reason they should ever have actually approached a Hogwarts student.”  He turned towards Ruby. “Excellent work as always, Miss Rose. Gryffindor performed quite well today.”

“Yeah, well, would have been better if I had gotten the Snitch,” Ruby lamented, looking at the ground.

“Not every match can be a victory, Ruby,” Taiyang reminded her, wrapping an arm around her shoulders as they headed towards the locker room.  “But that doesn’t mean you’re not impressive.”

Ruby smiled up at her father.  “Thanks, Dad.”


	10. Learning the Truth

On the next Hogsmeade trip, the group of Gryffindors found themselves visiting the same places they had last time, only now everything had been decorated for Christmas.  Honeydukes had put out the special Christmas treats and gifts, and everyone couldn’t wait to try the exclusive candies. As a result, the store was packed the second the Hogwarts students arrived.

But something more ominous than the candy inside the shop caught their attention.  “Look,” Ren said, approaching one of the fliers in the shop window, a small one, positioned in the lower corner.  He bent down to read it aloud.

“By order of the Ministry of Magic, Dementors will be patrolling Hogsmeade every night after sundown.  This measure has been put in place for the safety of Hogsmeade residents and will be lifted upon the recapture of Qrow Branwen.  It is therefore advisable that you complete all of your shopping before nightfall. Merry Christmas.” He straightened. “It’s really unusual that they haven’t managed to get Branwen by now, especially since he’s visited our school.”

“Broke in, more like,” Nora said, chewing on a piece of caramel fudge.  “Anyway, the teachers never let us stay that long. We’ll be fine.”

With sleet falling from the sky, they decided their afternoon might be best spent eating good food and drinking hot butterbeer, so the group headed to the Three Broomsticks, taking a table near the bar behind a large Christmas tree.  

“This is what Christmas feels like,” Yang sighed, sipping her butterbeer.

Once they settled in, the front door opened and several of the teachers came through too, each bundled up and prepared for the snow.  They sat around the bar, Professor Goodwitch, then Port, then Hagrid, and then a man dressed richly, in a dark coat with a velvet bowler hat.

“Who’s that?” Jaune whispered.

“The Minister of Magic,” Blake whispered back.

They watched their teachers order drinks.  “What brings you up to this neck of the wood, Minister?” the barmaid asked as she poured them and handed them out.

“Mr. Branwen, I’m afraid.  There was an incident up at the school on Halloween, and we’re still following up on it,” he said in a low voice.  

“Ah yes, I remember hearing a rumor,” the woman replied.

“Of course you heard a rumor,” Goodwitch grumbled, pushing her blonde hair out of her face.  

“So I suppose you think he’s still here.”  The barmaid sounded noticeably disappointed.

“Our best leads are in the region, Rosmerta,” the minister replied smoothly.

“Ah well, it’s just...the Dementors searching the town.  They’ve come through here twice. It’s not been good for business.  Scares the customers away, you know.”

“I dislike them as much as you do, let me assure you of that,” the Minister said firmly.  “It’s just an unfortunate precaution we need to take. After all, the children’s lives are at stake.”

“The sooner they’re gone, the better for everyone,” Goodwitch said.

Rosmerta shook her head.  “It’s still a shock, even after all these years.  Qrow never struck me as a bad kid, necessarily--really, nothing more than a mischief-maker.  If you’d had pointed him out to me when he was at Hogwarts and said, ‘Rosie, that boy’s going to murder thirteen people in cold blood,’ I would have told you to put down the rum.”

“You have no idea how bad it really was,” the Minister said with a sad shake of his head.  “The worst wasn’t really publicized.”

“And for good reason,” Goodwitch muttered.  “Rosmerta, you remember Qrow back at Hogwarts and who he hung out with?”

“Of course!  The first one that comes to mind of course, is Taiyang.  He and Qrow...well, not even my pub was exempt from their shenanigans.”

“Practically inseperable, those two,” Port remembered.

“Isn’t Taiyang teaching now?” Rosmerta asked.

“Defense,” Goodwitch confirmed.  “He’s one of the better teachers Hogwarts has had for the position.”

“Well, they grew up like brothers,” the Minister continued.  “Taiyang even had his first child, Yang, with Qrow’s sister, Raven.  And by all accounts, they were quite the family. But Raven’s called away, Auror business, and he has another child with Summer Rose.  Raven just decides she’s had enough and never returns, I suppose. Summer Rose raised both of them as if they were her own, and Qrow, of course he’s still around.  He’s their guardian, after all.”

“A good woman, she was,” Port reflected.  “And an utter bastard Qrow turned out to be.”

“Qrow, as it happened, had fallen in with a group of radicals who believed that aligning themselves with Dark interests.  For their first target, they’d take the town of Patch. Ozpin heard and told Summer, asked her to please ask her daughters’ godfather to change.  To turn away from darkness.”

“And Summer, being the woman she was,” Goodwitch picked up the story, “went.  As it happened, Raven had fled to Patch, and she and Summer allied together against her rogue brother.  But Qrow had already summoned the Grimm, had already given his own blood to bring them forth.”

“Taiyang trusted him, the goddamn traitor!” Hagrid shouted, much more loudly than he’d intended to, by the shushing that followed from the others.  “He trusted him to keep his girls safe. It’s a goddamn miracle they turned out the way they did, and that Taiyng didn’t get home one day to find his kiddos dead in their beds.  Once that Darkness gets you, there’s nothin’ you care about. Nothin’ that matters. Ruby and Yang were this close,” he held up his forefinger and thumb as close together as he could put them without touching, “to not getting to grow up.”

“Summer was killed in the attack.  But Raven was so betrayed by her brother, she ran after him.  He blew her apart when she confronted him,” the Minister said sadly.  

“Qrow always surpassed Raven with spellcraft,” Goodwitch lamented.  “She was much better with other forms of magic--if I recall, she was interested in studying to be an Animagus.”

Hagrid shook his head.  “If I had been there, Branwen would have been torn apart.”

“You wouldn’t have gotten the chance,” the Minister reminded him.  “It took an entire squad of Magical Law Enforcement to take him down and apprehend him.  All they found of Raven was a crater in the ground, already filling with sewer water from a burst pipe and some fragments of her robes.  Some blood. And that’s how Qrow Branwen committed sororicide.” He sipped his drink. “At least Raven was posthumously given an Order of Merlin, First Class.  She died a hero’s death.”

“So Branwen was never mad?” the barmaid asked.

“Of all the prisoners in Azkaban, I’d say Branwen is surprisingly sane,” the Minister answered bitterly.  “Most, by the time they’ve been locked up for years in solitary with nothing for company but the Dementors, they’re blithering messes.  Some just stop speaking entirely. But Branwen--he still speaks in full sentences. A little haggard, maybe, but oddly coherent.”

“Do you think he broke out to go back there?  To keep strengthening his Dark powers?”

“His motives are currently unknown, but if I had to take a guess, I would say yes, he most likely broke out for that reason.  The Branwens’ backgrounds have always been rather...murky, shall we say.”

“We’ll need to begin gathering the students soon,” Goodwitch said.  “They need to be back in the castle before nightfall.”

“It was a pleasure to share a drink with you, Cornelius,” Port said, standing and shaking the Minister’s hand.

“Of course, of course.  Student safety above all else.  Please pass my best regards on to Professor Ozpin,” The Minister replied.

And with that, they paid for their drinks and left the bar.

Everyone turned to Ruby and Yang, faces obviously concerned.

“We had no idea,’ Yang said.

 

That evening, the sisters went to their father’s office.

“We know the truth about our mothers and Qrow Branwen,” Yang said, her tone flat.  “We heard the Minister of Magic discussing it when we were in Hogsmeade.”

“Why didn’t you tell us?” Ruby wanted to know.

Taiyang didn’t meet their eyes.  “Because I don’t think Qrow did it.”

“What?” 

“It’s dumb.  And it’s a bad reason for me to not tell you what happened, I know.  But Qrow--you probably don’t even remember him--he got into trouble, sure, but it was never malicious.  I just can’t get it through my head that he’d just massacre an entire town for anything.” His voice softened.  “That he’d just kill Summer like that.” Taiyang looked up at them. “Qrow cared for Summer just as much as I did.”

“What about my mom?” Yang asked.

Taiyang sighed.  “The twins didn’t always get along, let’s just say that.  But again, your Uncle Qrow just...they never seemed like the kind of fights you’d ever kill someone over.  And before you ask, I have no excuses for how I treated her. I made a terrible mistake. I mean, it resulted in something wonderful--your sister--but Raven didn’t deserve to be disrespected like that and I don’t fault her at all for leaving.  I only wish you could have met her before her death. You remind me so much of her, Yang.” He smiled softly. “In some ways, I never lost your mothers at all. They’re with me all the time. I see their smiles in your smiles, hear them laughing when you laugh.  You even argue about some of the same things they used to get on each other’s nerves about.”

Something occurred to Yang.  “Mom wanted to become an Animagus.  Is that why you don’t like Morrigan?”

Taiyang nodded.  “One of the last conversations I had with her was her telling me that she was working on transforming into a raven.”  He leaned forward. “Listen, Yang, Ruby--don’t dwell on this. Please, I want you to enjoy your holidays. I know you had a right to know, and that you shouldn’t have found out about your mothers by eavesdropping.  But you also shouldn’t do anything rash. If I hear that you’ve been trying to go after Qrow by yourselves--” he let the implied threat of punishment hand in the air.

“We won’t, Dad,” Ruby said.  “We promise.”

As they left their father’s office, Yang clenched her fists.  “He has to pay, Ruby.”

“I know, Yang, but you heard them at the Three Broomsticks.  It took an entire squad of Magical Law Enforcement to get Branwen in the first place.  What could two third-year Hogwarts students possibly be able to do against a hardened criminal?”

“I don’t know, but it’s got to be better than what the Ministry has.  He’s not even affected by the Dementors, for heaven’s sake!” Yang sighed.  “He can’t just get away with what he did to our mothers.”

Ruby patted Yang’s shoulder.  “I know. But it won’t help anyone if we die too.”

 

Ren and Nora, still shaken from learning about Ruby and Yang’s moms, figured that another visit to Hagrid was due.  They put on their boots and cloaks, then trekked down the hill to the little cabin at the edge of the Forbidden Forest.

But when they arrived and knocked, Hagrid didn’t answer the door.  “Maybe he’s out,” Ren suggested.

“Maybe he’s asleep,” Nora said, and knocked harder.  “Hello, Hagrid!” she called through the door.

“You are the exact opposite of subtle, Nora,” Ren muttered.

“Never said I was going for subtle.”  Nora continued to bang on the door.

They heard footsteps approach and Nora stopped knocking long enough for the door to open.  Hagrid stood there, his eyes red and puffy and tears streaking his face. “You heard, then?”

“Oh no, what’s happened?” Nora exclaimed, and they followed Hagrid into his cabin, where he sat them down at his little table and shoved a letter towards them.

_ Dear Mr. Hagrid, _

_ Further to our inquiry into the attack by a hippogriff on a student in your class, we have accepted the assurances of Professor Ozpin that you bear no responsibility for the regrettable incident.  _

_ However, we must register our concern about the hippogriff in question. We have decided to uphold the official complaint of Mr. Falcon Winchester, and this matter will therefore be taken to the Committee for the Disposal of Dangerous Creatures. The hearing will take place on April 20th, and we ask you to present yourself and your hippogriff at the Committee's offices in London on that date. In the meantime, the hippogriff should be kept tethered and isolated. _

The letter was signed by the school governors.

“Buckbeak isn’t a bad hippogriff, you see,” Hagrid explained.  “He jus’ did what hippogriffs do when they’re insulted.”

“We saw the whole thing,” Ren said.  “We could be witnesses at the hearing.”

“You warned us and everything!” Nora insisted.  It’s Cardin’s fault he didn’t listen.”

“It won’t help,” Hagrid sobbed.  “They’ve got it in for interestin’ creatures at the Committee.”

“How about asking Ozpin?” Ren suggested.

“He’s done enough already.  There’s jus’ too much goin’ on for him, what with Qrow Branwen runnin’ aroun’ and those Dementors tryin’a get in the castle…”

“Ooh, I hate those!  And how they showed up at the Quidditch match and everything.” Nora shuddered.  “I just,” she hung her head. “I remember that day when I woke up and my mother wasn’t there.  That whole feeling when I realized she wasn’t coming back, it just consumes me. I just feel like I’m stuck in that moment whenever they’re around.  It’s awful.” 

Ren reached his hand around to grab hers and give it a squeeze for comfort.

“You don’t know the half of it, Nora,” Hagrid said quietly.  “When I was in Azkaban, it was like going mad. Everythin’ bad that ever happened to me, I jus’ lived it over and over.  When I was expelled from Hogwarts...when my dad died...all that kinda stuff. You stop feeling like yourself, like you have anything to live for.  I hoped I’d die in my sleep when I was there. When I got out, it was the best feeling in the world.”

“I can imagine,” Ren said.  “It doesn’t take very long for a life to change forever, does it?”

“Nope,” Nora agreed.

Hagrid looked out the window at the hippogriff biting at the snow.  “I’d let him go, but it’d be breaking the law. And they might still find him.  But I’m ashamed to say that that’s not the reason I’m not gettin’ him away from here.  I’m jus’ too scared to go back to Azkaban.”

Nora wrapped her arms around Hagrid’s neck, and he hugged her back.  After a moment, she reached out one arm. “Get in here, Ren.”

And they sat there and hugged, and when Nora and Ren left to head back up to the castle, they felt just a little bit better than they had a few moments before.


	11. The Holidays

Everyone went home for Christmas except for Ruby, Yang, Nora, and Ren.  Nora and Ren spent their free moments hidden away in the library, trying to find anything that might help Hagrid. 

 

On Christmas morning, Taiyang woke to his pile of presents--small, as always, but two odd packages sat on top, wrapped in old newspapers.

Taiyang looked at them, both labeled in messy writing: RUBY. YANG.

He recognized that handwriting from many notes passed during his own school days.

He tossed them into the fireplace to dispose of them.  The girls didn’t need any more pain in their lives.

 

Taiyang saw his daughters again at the school Christmas luncheon, which Professor Ozpin hosted at a long table in the Great Hall.  Apart from one annoyed-looking Slytherin and a first-year student, Ruby, Yang, and two of their friends were the only students staying over the holidays.  As for teachers, Taiyang spotted Ozpin, Glynda, Bartholomew, Pomona, and Filius.

“Merry Christmas, Tai.” Ozpin greeted him.  “How has your holiday gone thus far?”

“A bit of a late start, but quite well, thanks.”  

“He’s always a little late on the holidays,” Ruby said in a stage-whisper.

“That’s only because you get up at, like, dawn whenever there’s presents involved,” Taiyang replied, ruffling her hair good-naturedly.  

On the other side of the table, Port and Oobleck were cracking open one of the Christmas crackers scattered across the tablecloth.  A giant witch’s hat with a vulture on top popped out. The two immediately proceeded to bet the other to wear it, and Taiyang felt absolutely certain that it would be appearing later in some sort of gambling.  Those two together were nearly as bad as he and Qrow had been during their own school days.

Taiyang helped himself to turkey and potatoes and joined the meal as Ruby and Yang regaled him with a litany of their presents.

The dinner was interrupted when the door to the Great Hall banged open and Professor Trelawney appeared on the threshold.  “Apologies for my lateness, Professor Ozpin. I was crystal-gazing when I saw myself coming to join the feast, and who am I to ignore that path which Fate has decided for me?”

“Please join us, Sybill,” Ozpin said, summoning a chair between Goodwitch and Oobleck.  

“We’ve definitely got enough food for everyone,” Taiyang added.

But Trelawney shook her head violently.  “Certainly not, Professor! If I sit, then we will have thirteen.  And when thirteen together dine, the first to rise will be the first to die.”

“I believe it’s worth the risk, Sybill,” Goodwitch said icily.  “The food’s getting cold.”

Professor Trelawney sat gingerly, as if the chair might explode the second she sat.  

Everyone else continued passing the food around as usual and making small talk between themselves.

 

Two hours later, the platters were empty and the cakes had all been eaten.  A sleepy haze had started to fall over the staff and students, who wanted to spend the rest of their day not doing anything at all.

Ruby turned to Yang.  “I’m gonna go back to the dorm.  Do you want to come with me?”

“Sure,” Yang said.

They both stood.

Professor Trelawney gasped, looking affronted.  “Which one of you stood first?”

“I don’t know,” Yang said, confused.

“My girls can handle themselves, Sybill,” Taiyang replied.  “I don’t they’re in any danger, so long as they’re not breaking any of Hogwarts’s rules.”

“I just wanted to read my comic books,” Ruby muttered.

“Go on,” Taiyang encouraged them.  “If you die, please let me know.”

“Got it!” Yang gave a fake salute before they headed up to Gryffindor tower.


	12. Nora's Patronus

Nora went to visit Professor Xiao Long just before the winter break.  She knocked twice on the door frame.

“Come in!” he called.

Hesitantly, Nora walked in. “Hello, Professor Xiao Long,” she said.

“Nora,” Xiao Long replied in greeting.  “Please, have a seat. What do you need?”

Nora sat at the chair in front of his desk.  “I want to learn how to shoot the silver stuff out of my wand that made the Dementors go away.  I hate them. I can’t stand being around them, and I just want to be able to make them go away.”  She blinked tears out of her eyes. “I’ll study outside of class. I’ll do whatever I need to to make this happen.  I just can’t stand being so helpless around them!”

“Let me see what I can do,” Xiao Long said.  “For obvious reasons, we can’t use real Dementors.  But if you’re up for it, I don’t see any harm in teaching you how to perform the spell.”

“Thank you so much, Professor!” Nora said, standing.  “Thank you!”

“Don’t thank me yet!” Professor Xiao Long called after her as she left the office.

 

A week later, Nora met Professor Xiao Long in the same empty classroom in which they’d had their first lesson.  Again, the cabinet rattled and banged.

“I found another Boggart,” Professor Xiao Long explained, shutting the door behind them.  “As long as you can get it to look like a Dementor, it’ll work for what we need to do.”

“Prepare to get your butt kicked,” Nora said to the cabinet.  She turned back to Taiyang. “So what’s the spell for the silver stuff?”

“That silver stuff is called a Patronus, and it’s kind of the opposite of a Dementor,” Taiyang explained.  “To start with, do you know what attracts Dementors? What they’re drawn to?”

Nora shook her head.  “Nope.”

“They feed on despair and fear,” Taiyang told her.  “A Patronus, being a physical manifestation of your happy memories, won’t have any of that, so the Dementor won’t be able to sense it--or anything behind it, for that matter.  But that only applies if you can do it.”

“What do you mean?”

“Patronuses are hard--you won’t even learn anything remotely similar to them until you’re in your sixth or seventh year.  And some wizards never master them.”

Nora nodded.  

“The spell works with an incantation and the force of your happiest memories.  You need to focus, Nora, on the happiest time of your life. I think about--I think about this one Christmas, when Summer was baking cookies with Ruby and Yang and the entire house smelled like vanilla and sugar.  The tree was decorated, and we were all home, and I just try to capture the immense peace I felt in that moment. Do you get the idea?”

Nora thought for a minute.  “Okay. I’ve got a memory.”

“Now, when you cast the spell, say ‘expecto patronum’.”

“Expecto patronum,” repeated Nora.

“Happy memory.  Expecto patronum.”

“Happy memory.  Expecto patronum.”  Nora bounced on her toes and pulled out her wand.  She closed her eyes as she focused on the memory. “Expecto patronum!”  Nothing happened. She recentered herself. “Expecto patronum!”

This time, silver smoke floated out of her wand.

“I’m getting it!”

Taiyang walked over to the wardrobe.  “Ready to try it?”

Nora nodded.

Taiyang released the Boggart and it took on a black, hooded form.  Nora felt the cold sink into her bones, followed by the sense of horrible isolation and hunger, the very moment she realized she’d been abandoned on infinite replay in her body.  She fought to hold the feeling of the cool, night air and Ren’s shoulder beneath her head in her focus. “Expecto patronum!” she tried to shout, but it came out shaking instead.

The sound of the cupboard doors slamming brought her back to herself.  Her face was covered in a mix of sweat and tears.

“You okay, Nora?  That was pretty intense.”

“I’m fine, Professor.”  She wiped her face with the back of her hand.  “Let’s go again. Kick its butt, remember?”

Professor Xiao Long reached into his pocket and tossed something in her direction.  Nora just barely caught a Chocolate Frog. “Eat that first. Chocolate can counteract some of the effects of the Dementor.”

Nora bit it in half.  “Thanks, Professor.” She finished the frog, then spun her wand between her fingers.  “Let’s do it again.”

“Okay.”  He walked back over to the doors of the cupboard.  “Ready?”

Nora nodded.

Xiao Long swung the doors open a second time.  “Expecto patronum!” Nora shouted, struggling to hold on to that precious feeling of realizing she had a friend for the first time in her life.  But she couldn’t. The emotion faded too quickly, and nothing came from her wand. “Crap,” she muttered as Professor Xiao Long closed it up again.  

“Remember, Nora, this is Auror-level stuff.  You’re not going to get it right away. You might not even get it at all.  But I think it’s a little early to give up hope, yeah?”

“Sure.”  But Nora didn’t sound too sure.  “Can I please have one more try?”

“Just one more, I think.  I don’t want to burn you out.”

Nora held her wand out again.  “Let it out, Professor.”

This time, when Nora conjured the Patronus, a little silver wisp of smoke came out of her wand.   The energy to take it there, to resist the despair, drove her to her knees. As she fell, Professor Xiao Long took out his own wand and forced the Dementor back into the closet, using another spell to lock it shut.  He went over to her and reached into his pocket, this time for some chocolate from Honeydukes. “Take it.”

Nora looked up at him, still crying.  “Are you sure?”

“It’ll help you get your strength back.  I’m sorry if I pushed you too hard. You did a good job.”

Nora smiled weakly.  “You know, Ruby and Yang are lucky to have a dad like you.”  She took the chocolate and unwrapped it, handing a piece to Professor Xiao Long.

“I’m lucky to have them, that’s for sure.”

As Nora left, Professor Xiao Long couldn’t help but wonder what her life had been like before Hogwarts.  What it was like when she left for the summer. How it would change now that she was a wizard.

 

They continued training every Thursday.  Finally, after a couple weeks, something occurred to Nora.

“What is under a Dementor’s hood, Professor?”

“Nobody knows,” Professor Xiao Long replied.  Upon seeing the look on Nora’s face, he elaborated.  “The Dementors never lower their hoods unless they’re going in for the kill--well, I guess you could say it’s worse than that.  They have the ability to suck out someone’s soul. You see, Nora, it’s possible to live without a soul, but you stop really being a person.  I’ve seen people after they’ve been Kissed by a Dementor--that’s what it’s called when they do that--and they’re not really people anymore. They don’t have their memories, their personalities--everything that made them who they were is just gone.”  He looked away. “They just authorized the Dementors to perform is on Qrow Branwen when they find him.”

“But don’t you think he deserves it?” Nora said.  “I mean, Raven and Summer--you loved them, didn’t you?  And he just killed them?”

“I don’t think anyone deserves that kind of torture.  I used to know Qrow, Nora. Even though I know what he did, I don’t think Raven or Summer would want to be avenged that way.  Neither one of them glorified suffering for suffering’s sake, and I think they’d rather he be killed than live in a neverending hell.  Do you think anyone deserves that?”

“Yeah,” Nora said quietly.  “Yeah, some people do.”

 

The weather was much improved for the next Gryffindor Quidditch match, this time against Hufflepuff.  A girl in their year, Ilia Amitola, was the Hufflepuff Seeker. It was her first year playing the position, and she was obviously very excited.

The match seemed to go quite well, but Ilia was at least as fast as Ruby on her broom.  It was obvious she’d had some Quidditch experience outside of practice, and she had a newer broom. 

Ruby spotted the Snitch and accelerated toward it, only to get blocked by Ilia.  Not wanting to get a foul for Gryffindor, Ruby went into a steep dive and flew around her, which caused Ilia to lose track of the Snitch as she focused on keeping Ruby away from the Snitch.  A rookie mistake, but Ruby had to work to keep away from the Hufflepuff. For the Seekers, Quidditch quickly turned into something not dissimilar to tag, except that their focus was always drawn from distracting the other when they spotted the Snitch.

Just as Ruby closed in on the Snitch and her hand wrapped around it, Ilia screamed.

 

Three Dementors had come onto the field.  

_ Not again, _ thought Nora, who didn’t think, but stood where she’d been in the stands, only focusing on Ruby and her friends.

“Expecto patronum!” She channeled the happiness and excitement she felt at the match through her memory of sitting on the group home’s roof with Ren.  It was like electricity rushing through her bones, and Nora knew this time it would work, her Patronus would come. She felt so much stronger than ever before.

Instead of wisps of smoke, a fully-formed horse with wings flowed out of her wand and galloped through the air around the Quidditch pitch once before dissolving, bringing even more cheers from the Gryffindors.

“That was amazing, Nora!” Yang shouted.  Everyone around her looked impressed, but Nora was more focused on what was happening on the field.  “Where did you learn to do that?”

A group of boys were attempting to disentangle themselves from where they’d fallen when Nora’s Patronus had startled them.  From what it looked like, Cardin and his buddies had tried to disrupt the match by dressing as Dementors.

“That’s low,” Jaune said, coming up behind Nora.  “That’s really low.”

“I can’t believe they even thought that would work,” Yang complained.  “What a bunch of jerks.”

“At least no one was hurt,” Blake interjected.  “We should get back to the castle and get ready for Ruby.”

 

That night, at the Gryffindor Tower party, Ren and Nora found themselves sitting together after a game of Wizarding Chess.  “Nora, what was that spell you cast when you saw the Dementors?” Ren asked her quietly.

“A Patronus,” Nora answered.  “It...it makes them go away.” Nora looked down.  “I asked Professor Xiao Long to teach me. I just couldn’t take...remembering every single time I got near one of those things.  Especially since I’ve spent so much time just trying to forget.”

Ren reached out and squeezed her hand.  “It was beautiful, Nora.”

“I was just scared.”

“Me too.”


	13. A Unique Perch

That night, the girls woke to a scream.

Ruby sat bolt upright and saw Yang already standing with her wand at the ready.  Nora had frozen, still in her bed, and Blake perched on her headboard with uncanny ease. 

“What the hell, Blake?” Yang snapped.

“I saw him!  Qrow Branwen, right there.  He threw a knife into the wall!” Blake said, pointing over to Morrigan’s cage.

The raven perched on the wooden hilt of a knife sticking out of the wall, acting as if nothing had happened, just preening herself.

“Are you sure it wasn’t a dream?” Ruby asked.

“Dead serious,” Blake said.  “The knife is right there, for heaven’s sake!”

“Oh my god,” Yang replied, running out the door.  The other three girls followed her, everyone’s footsteps (except for Blake’s) echoing through the hallways.  

The rooms around their opened their doors too, peeking out to see what the commotion was.  Some even followed them.

“Who screamed?”

“What’s going on?”

Coco even came out of her room. “Goodwitch told us to quit partying.  So quit partying,” she told them all, looking bored.

“How’s her hair always stay so nice?” Nora wondered.

“Uh, Qrow Branwen threw a knife into our wall, Coco,” Ruby volunteered.  “Blake saw him.”

Coco’s jaw dropped, but she didn’t get the chance to say anything else.  Professor Goodwitch appeared behind her. “You all have beds, if I recall correctly?” she asked in a tone that would freeze alcohol on the spot.

“Professor, Ruby--Blake--something happened,” Coco spluttered.  

“Qrow Branwen threw a knife into our wall!” Blake shouted over everyone’s muttering.  “Go look! It’s in the birdcage!”

“That’s impossible, Miss Belladonna.”  Goodwitch leveled her gaze at her. “How could he have gotten into Gryffindor Tower in the first place?”

Nobody knew.

“I suppose I’ll ask Sir Cadogan,” Goodwitch said, and she walked down the stairs, cutting a path through the crowd of students like a hot knife through butter.  Everyone went silent within the tower as they strained to listen to her exchange through the wall. But their boisterous replacement for the Fat Lady seemed all too excited to tell her what he’d done.

“Sir Cadogan, who did you last allow into Gryffindor Tower?”

“A gallant man, who appeared in a hurry.  He claimed to be a fellow knight on a mission of life or death!”

“And this man...he had the passwords?”

“Yes, m’lady!  All in a little book!”

“And you don’t know who he is beyond what you’ve told me?”

“Aye, it is a knight’s honor at stake if he shall question another!”

Goodwitch appeared again in the portrait hole.  Her voice nor face betrayed any emotion. “Which one of you,” she asked, “had the lack of presence of mind as to write down every password this Tower has ever had?”

Everyone looked around.  Their eyes all landed on Jaune Arc, who raised one tentative hand.


	14. The Map

“Miss Xiao Long!  To my office!” Filch yelled at her as boys scattered from the bathroom into which she’d just thrown a Dungbomb.

Yang smirked as she followed him to his broom-closet sized office, absolutely filled with files, papers, and confiscated items.

From the floor above came another  _ BANG! _

“This is ridiculous,” Filch muttered.  “You,” he pointed at Yang, “stay here and don’t touch anything.  I’ll be right back.”

He left his office at a run, and Yang made sure he was gone before beginning to rifle through the papers on his desk.  One old parchment stood out, and Yang slipped it into her pocket.

A minute later, Filch returned.  Yang sat through a lecture telling her about the damage she could have caused, and took the punishment of as many detentions as it would take for her to clean all of the womens’ bathrooms in the common areas of the castle by hand.

When she returned to Gryffindor Tower, she went back to her dorm and pulled out the parchment.  Hiding under her covers, she examined it. Huh. Why would Filch confiscate a blank parchment?

_ Do you solemnly swear you are up to no good? _ The words appeared on one side of the paper.

“I solemnly swear I am up to no good,” Yang whispered.

_ Are you a witch or not? _

Oh.  Wand.  Yang tried again.

Ink flowed over the parchment, displaying an incredibly detailed map of Hogwarts, showing the locations of everything and everyone within the castle, down to the moment.  She could see Blake in the library, Nora and Ren in the common room, Cardin in the dungeons...everyone was on the map.

This was really cool.  Really, really cool.

But suddenly Yang remembered Ruby, cold and pale, shivering and crying as they brought her up from the Chamber of Secrets.  How she’d trusted that book that had Cinder in it. How it had thought for itself.

She felt much more apprehensive about the map, like maybe she shouldn’t be playing with it.

_ Mischief managed. _  The words appeared at the bottom of the map.

Yang repeated them and tapped her wand on the parchment.  It returned to its blank state.

Whatever it was, maybe it’d be useful in the future.  Yang slipped it into her bag.

 

On their next trip to Hogsmeade, everyone visited their favorite old haunts.  All but Yang and Jaune had come, because they were on disciplinary probation and therefore weren’t allowed to go on excursions.

“I can’t believe Yang thought that would be funny,” Ruby complained to Blake.  “Like, I thought it’s probably more fun to visit Hogsmeade than to freak out all the boys trying to pee.”

“Yang has one of those personalities that prioritizes instant gratification,” Blake replied.  “I’m not surprised, honestly.”

“Maybe we should bring her something?” Ruby mused, examining a pack of Acid Pops.  “She’d probably eat one of these without realizing what it was, right?”

“I’d never fall for that, Ruby,” a voice behind them said.

Ruby and Blake spun around.  Yang stood behind them, her cloak pulled far over her head and a scarf wrapped around most of her face.  “Yang! What are you doing here?”Ruby whispered.

Yang held up the blank map.

“I’ll show you later.”

And she vanished into the back of the store.

“At this rate, she’ll never get out of detention, will she?” Ruby asked Blake, who just shook her head.

They met Nora and Ren and got some Butterbeer at the Three Broomsticks before heading up to look at the Shrieking Shack, on Nora’s suggestion.

“Not even the Hogwarts ghosts go there!” Nora exclaimed.

“I wonder if it’s actually haunted,” Blake said.

As they walked, they heard voices from the other side of the hill.   “My father says he’ll send an owl once the proceedings are complete.” Weiss’s voice carried on the wind.  

“He’s barely literate,” Cardin replied as they came over the hill.  “Trust me, Weiss. It’ll be absolutely brilliant when the verdict comes back.”

Weiss’s blank expression remained as they noticed the Gryffindors at the top of the hill.  “What are you doing here?” she asked.

Nora gestured to the Shack with both arms.  “It’s a haunted house!”

Cardin snorted.  “Aren’t you immature?  It’s not even haunted. Rumor is, they built it for a wolf Faunus who couldn’t control himself.  Took a chunk out of another student’s leg. After that, it wasn’t like they could expel the beast...no, that might be racist.  So they stuck it off campus to howl and scream until it learned better.”

“Suck it, Winchester,” Blake shot back.

“Ooh, little kitty’s got claws.  Guess you don’t need a girlfriend to protect you now, do you?”  He smirked at her. Weiss pulled at Winchester's coat.

“It’s not worth it, Cardin.  Don’t we have better things to do than fight with Gryffindors?”

He turned to Weiss.  “We’re educating them, not fighting, Schnee.”

“I never asked Yang to hit you,” Blake replied.  

“Well, then maybe she thinks of you as a pet,” Cardin answered.  “Her cute little kitty cat.”

“She said suck it!” Ruby shouted back.

“As far as I know, no one tells Yang what to do,” Ren said.  

“Maybe she’s just not racist scum, huh, Cardin?” Nora spoke up.  She wrapped an arm around Blake’s shoulders. “I mean, Blake here’s my friend and I’d kick your butt for what you just said to her.  ‘Cause, you know, I also don’t like racist scum.”

Weiss rolled her eyes.  “My father’s letter will be arriving any minute now.  Do you want to come with me to get it or not?”

Cardin sighed.  “Fine.” As Weiss lead him away from the confrontation, he smirked at them.  Nora waved a middle finger back at them.

“Oh, Yang,” Ruby sighed herself.  Visiting the Shrieking Shack no longer seemed appealing after that encounter.

 

When they got back to the castle, Morrigan had left a letter for Nora on her bed.  She opened it before running out of their dorm.

“I hope everything’s okay,” Ruby said as she left.

“Nora’s strong, Ruby,” Yang reminded her.  “She’ll be fine.” Yang kicked the door closed behind her and rubbed her hands together. “Get a load of this.”  She pulled out a blank piece of parchment and tapped it with her wand. “I solemnly swear I am up to no good,” she said, and a map of Hogwarts, complete with the location of everyone inside, blossomed across its surface.

“It’s got loads of secret passages, and it will tell you how to use them too,” Yang said, spreading it out on the floor.  She pointed out a passage behind a gargoyle statue. “That one goes to Honeydukes. And I’m pretty sure that one,” she pointed to another passage, “goes to the Shrieking Shack.”

Yang looked at her friends’ less-than-enthusiastic expressions.  “Don’t you get it? With this, we have the run of the castle!”

“I think you should put it back where it came from,” Ruby said.  “I’ve had enough with paper that writes on itself after that book last year.”

“Ruby’s right, Yang.  My dad told me after last year not to trust anything if I can’t see its brain,” Blake agreed.

“Spoilsports.” Yang stuck her tongue out at them, then folded the map and put it into her trunk.  “What if we don’t use it? What if we just keep it for emergencies?”

“I really think we should just destroy it, Yang.”  Ruby’s nervousness was justified in this situation.  “What if even just having it around is enough to activate the enchantment?”

Yang held up her hands in a gesture of surrender.  “Fine. I’ll get rid of it. Just forget I ever showed it to you.”

“Do you promise?” Ruby asked.

“Double promise with a cherry on top,” Yang answered.


	15. Buckbeak's Fate

Meanwhile, Nora dragged Ren to the library, all the way to one of the back corners.  

“Look at this,” she said, and unfolded the note.

They read it together.

Buckbeak hadn’t won the trial.

Their hearts sank, and Nora wrapped her arms around Ren.  Tears came to her eyes, and then to his too, as they realized all their work had been for naught.

“There’s no way,” Nora said softly.  “He wouldn’t hurt a fly.”

“There has to be an appeal, Nora,” Ren replied.  “We should have another chance.”

“They’re all corrupt though, Hagrid warned us,” she sobbed.  “He--he knew it was over, that he didn’t have a chance.” She rubbed her eyes.  “They all just hate him because he’s not a pureblood. What, exactly, changes if we try to do this again?  Not their minds. And look at us! We’re two homeless orphans going to boarding school on someone else’s dime.  Nobody’s going to care what we have to say.”

“Nora, this isn’t like you,” Ren said, the concern in his voice clear.  

Just then, a folded piece of paper fell onto the floor between their seats, dropped by Weiss Schnee, who walked past the shelves and pretended to browse for books before heading out of the library.

“Weiss!  You dropped something!” Ren called quietly after her, but she ignored him.

Ren unfolded it.

“I sent my father an accurate testimony of how Cardin taunted the hippogriff, but since it differed from the testimonies submitted by Cardin and his cronies, they excluded it from the trial as likely fabricated evidence. You are correct about the corruption. I am sincerely sorry.  I tried to do what I could. W.S,’ he read.

“At least someone else cares,” Nora sniffled.  She sat up. “We need to be there when it happens.”

“We do?”

Nora elbowed him.  “For Hagrid and Buckbeak.  We need to show our support, that someone believes in them.”

Ren nodded.  “Let’s do it.  I think that any punishment we’d get would be worth it.”

Nora hugged Ren again.  “Thank you so much.”

Ren was surprised this time.  “Why?”

“For sticking by me no matter what.”

 

Whitley was positively elated by the news.  “Serves him right for thinking monsters can be pets,” he told Weiss.  “I’ve known since you started at Hogwarts that Father had it in for Hagrid.  It’s really just desserts that the hippogriff goes too.”

“Remember, Hagrid was ruled to be not at fault.  Ozpin won’t necessarily fire him for this,” Weiss reminded her brother.

“Yes, but sister, it’s only a matter of time.  He’s clearly not fit to be around children. Perhaps if he only lived in the woods…he could have as many creatures as he likes in there and no one would care.”

“Hagrid is rather familiar with the creatures of the forest,” Weiss agreed.  

“I feel like that is something you should suggest to Father,” Whitley said.  “If he tries to appeal, perhaps he too would be found at partial fault. It’d serve him right for sticking up for beasts over students.”


	16. Crystal Balls

Everyone sat down at their usual places for Divination when they began crystal balls.  They watched the swirling fog within the glass as Professor Trelawney greeted them. “I have decided to hasten your introduction to the crystal ball,” she explained.  “I have discussed with the Fates, and they have informed me that your exams shall focus sufficiently on crystal-gazing, and I wished to prepare you adequately.”

Blake, who had become increasingly disillusioned with the class, had to refute that point to her friends.  “Guess they decided to contract out when writing the Divination exam. I wonder why,” she stated dryly, setting Yang off into quiet giggles.

Professor Trelawney continued on. “Crystal gazing is a very refined art and I do not expect for you to have immediate success.  As you stare into the Orb’s Infinite Depths, you must relax your outer eyes and conscious mind, both of which will conflict with the opening of your Inner Eye and your interpretation of what you See.”

They managed to sit quietly for fifteen minutes staring into the globe in front of them before Yang spoke up.  “Does anyone see anything?”

“There’s an inkblot here that looks kinda like a salamander,” Ruby reported.  “Someone must have spilled on the tablecloth.”

“Lucky you,” Blake muttered.

“Does anyone need help interpreting their Orb or relaxing their consciousness?” Professor Trelawney asked.

“Maybe this means I’m gonna get a salamander,” Ruby whispered.  “I’ll name it Tom.”

Unfortunately, she came over to their table to peer into their orb.  “My, girls, you have something here!” she exclaimed. She inhaled sharply, though.  “Although Ruby...you are in grave danger. The Spectre, it flies ever closer, seeking you out among your compatriots…”

Blake sighed loudly.

“Miss Belladonna!” Professor Trelawney admonished.  “Are you really too frustrated to ask for help?”

“No, I just think it’s ridiculous that you keep telling Ruby she’s going to die, even though you have no proof.”

“My dear, no proof?”  Professor Trelawney tutted.  “I’m afraid, Miss Belladonna, that your understanding of the Inner Sight has proven absolutely dismal this year.  You seem entirely unable to grasp the subject. You need to understand that, in the areas of predictions, there are others more experienced than yourself and you must let your petty preconceptions sit aside.  I fear that, perhaps, Divination is not the subject for you.”

“Oh, really?” Blake said, gathering her things.  “I guess I’ll take your advice, then. I’ve got better things to do.”  She walked over to the ladder and climbed down and out of sight.

It took a little bit for everyone to settle down.  “That was actually kind of impressive,” Yang admitted.

Ruby nodded.  “Guess that’s what happens when your parents are lawyers.”

 

Meanwhile, Nora was awed by the fact that Professor Trelawney’s prediction had come true.  “Around Easter, one of our number will leave forever--you said something like that at the beginning of the year, Professor!” Nora exclaimed.

“Ah, yes.  I hoped I had seen wrong...but I wish Miss Belladonna only the best in her future endeavors, of course, Miss Valkyrie.”


	17. The End is Nigh

After Easter break, the Quidditch cup game rapidly approached.  The Gryffindor team took every spare minute of field time they could get, and Ruby found that she had far less time to spend with her friends.  But everyone was ridiculously excited for the game, and it seemed like the whole school came decked out in their House gear. Blake even wrapped a maroon hair ribbon around her ears, which twitched excitedly as she watched the match.

And it was the most exciting, down-to-the-wire, dirtiest Quidditch match most of the students had ever personally witnessed.

Ruby successfully feinted, leading Cardin away from the Snitch and allowing Gryffindor to score points as each team’s Beaters targeted the other team’s Chasers, brutally hoping to knock them off their broom with the Bludgers.  Bats flew through the air, which wasn’t supposed to happen. A Slytherin pulled a Gryffindor Chaser’s hair, and she shoved him in return. The beaters even flew at Ruby, making Yang cover her eyes until her sister flew out of the way of their swinging bats at the last second and they gave each other bloody noses.  They even attacked the Gryffindor Keeper.

Madame Hooch shouted herself so hoarse she had to use multiple amplification spells to referee over the roar of the crowd.

Then Cardin grabbed onto Ruby’s broom just as she was about to get the Snitch, nearly throwing her off.  “DON’T YOU DARE MESS WITH MY SISTER!” Yang screamed out onto the field as the commentator lapsed into a profanity-filled rant about what he had just seen.  Even Goodwitch was agitated enough by the display of poor sportsmanship that she didn’t reprimand him immediately.

Finally, it looked like the match was about to end.  Cardin swooped down, diving steeply for the Snitch.

But Ruby wasn’t going to have that.  Even though she was behind, she pressed herself flat against her broom,  and when that didn’t give her enough speed and reach to beat out Cardin at the last moment, she leapt from her broom and dove, knocking him out of the way and falling five feet to the grassy pitch, catching herself in a roll.

“AND SHE GOT THE SNITCH!” The commentator’s voice roared through the stadium.  “GRYFFINDOR WINS THE QUIDDITCH CUP!”

Soon, Ruby was mobbed--first by her team, and then by Gryffindor house, everyone cheering.

They beat Slytherin.

They won.

It was a great day.

 

Not even the upcoming finals dampened the Gryffindor students’ elation at having won the Quidditch cup.

However, Nora’s excitement faded quickly once she got another note from Hagrid at breakfast one morning.  She showed Ren the letter Morrigan had brought her.

“The appeal is set for the sixth,” Nora said.  “The day we get done with our exams.”

Ren shook his head.  “That corruption is infuriating.  That they’re bringing an executioner…”

Nora looked at Ren with determination.  “We’ll be there, though. Somehow, we’ll get there.  We could be witnesses!”

“Or just witness an execution,” Ren reminded her. 

“Don’t think about that part!” Nora insisted.  “We have to be positive! Maybe the people doing the appeal won’t be corrupt.”  She rubbed her hands together. “We gotta shape up so we can help Hagrid!”

 

As exam week progressed, though, they had little time for anything but studying.  Their last exam, Divination, approached rapidly. “Have fun pretending that fog convincingly looks like something,” Blake said as her dorm-mates left to go take their exam.  She’d already finished--no Divination for her. She’d told Goodwitch that Trelawney could fail her, she wasn’t doing it.

Nora stuck her tongue out at their door once they’d gotten out of sight.  Ren elbowed her. “Nora!”

“What?”

Ruby snickered at her antics.

They met Jaune at the bottom of the ladder.  “We have to do it individually,” he told them.  “What should I say if I don’t see anything? I never see anything in those things.”

“Just say Ruby’s going to die in some horrible way,” Yang suggested.  “I mean, she already thinks it’s true.”

Jaune gave her a shaky smile.  “Thanks, Yang.”

As the last person headed down the ladder, he headed up.

“Thanks for the vote of confidence in my survival, sis,” Ruby muttered.  

Yang smiled playfully.  “Ah. An entire bedroom to myself at last.”

They waited as each student was called individually.  It seemed to take forever. 

Finally, Ruby got called up.  “Good luck!” Yang said, waving up after her.

Ruby smiled back nervously.  She’d never seen a thing in a crystal ball!

Today, only one table sat in the center of Professor Trelawney’s dark, stifling office, with one crystal ball at the center.  Trelawney sat in an armchair with her back to the fire. Ruby took the other armchair directly across from her. 

“Welcome, Miss Rose,” Professor Trelawney said dreamily.  Perhaps the sweet fumes in her office had finally driven her looney.  “Please, gaze into the Orb, and tell me what you see...take your time, dear.”

Ruby stared hard at the globe on the table in front of her, but only saw fog.  She’d have to make something up. Oh well.

“I see Blake,” Ruby reported, creating the story as she went along.  “She’s...older? And she’s smiling and holding something...a parchment?”

“A remarkably clear vision, Ruby.  What else do you see?”

“She looks really happy,” Ruby said.  “Like she’s having a good life. And her clothes are nice, like she’s rich.”

Professor Trelawney frowned.  “Well, it has never been said that the Inner Eye is a necessary prerequisite for success.  All the best to Miss Belladonna, although I would advise for you to not tell her what you have seen.  Knowing one’s future, after all, can inadvertently change it.”

Ruby nodded and bent to pick up her bag.  When she straightened up, Professor Trelawney lay in her chair, stiff as a board, her mouth hanging open.  Then she spoke. “It will happen tonight.”

Ruby set her bag back down.  “Are you okay, Professor?”

“The Dark Mistress increases in strength as her followers rally, her servant being chained for twelve years.  Tonight, before midnight, the servant will break free and set out to rejoin her Mistress. The Dark Mistress will rise again, greater and more terrible than she ever was.  Tonight, before midnight...the servant...will set out...to join...her Mistress….” Professor Trelawney’s head drooped and Ruby gasped.

“Professor?” she asked again.

Trelawney started, suddenly alert.  “I apologize my dear. The heat, I’m afraid…”

“But what about the Dark Mistress and her servant?”

Professor Trelawney’s eyes hardened.  “The Old Gods are not a topic one as young as yourself should be familiar with, Miss Rose,” she said coldly.

“But you just said that she was going to rise!”

Professor Trelawney shook her head.  “The heat must be getting to you, too, Ruby.  It is not for the likes of mortals to predict the acts of gods.  I suggest you stop letting your curiosity and imagination get the better of you and devote your efforts to more age-appropriate studies.”

Frustrated, Ruby grabbed her bag again and climbed back down the ladder.

“Good luck, Yang,” Ruby said to her sister, who winked and climbed up into the stifling classroom.

 

Ruby couldn’t wait to tell Yang what had happened, but her sister practically cackled as she climbed into the Gryffindor common room.  Her eyes were red and puffy, and tears ran freely down her cheeks. “Yang! Are you okay?”

“Oh my god.” Yang wiped her eyes with her arm.  “So, I predicted your death, of course, because Trelawney freaking loves hearing that.  But before I went in, I put a little of this,” she reached into her bag and pulled out a small vial of Dr. Tragic’s Tear-Juice, “on my hand and rubbed it over my eyes when I was giving the prediction about how you’d be killed by a train falling from the sky.  Oh my god, it was the most amazing thing ever. I pretended to sob like I was heartbroken, and she ate it up...gave me cookies and tea...and as I was leaving, I saw she gave me full marks!” Yang started giggling at her own cleverness again. “Forget Honeyduke’s, Ruby.  Zonko’s is where it’s at.”

Ruby poked her sister in the stomach, making her laugh even harder.  “Seriously, Yang? A train falling from the sky?”

“She totally believed it!” Yang gasped out between fits of laughter.  

With the nice weather and the relief from having finished their exams, Ruby and Yang headed outside with a Color-Changing Frisbee and Morrigan to enjoy their newfound freedom.


	18. Of Ravens and Qrows

Meanwhile, Ren and Nora weren’t having so much fun.

“Buckbeak’s going to die,” Nora said quietly, holding another note from Hagrid.  

“It’s at sunset, though,” Ren said, looking at the letter himself.  “There’s no way we’d be allowed out of the castle.”

“So we don’t leave after sunset.”

Ren looked at Nora.  “What?”

“I can cast a Patronus to keep the Dementors away.  We’ll be okay if we happen to be out at night.” She gripped Ren’s shoulders.  “This is too important to let little things like rules stop us from supporting our friend.”

They didn’t go to dinner that evening.  Instead, they sat outside, pretending to be reading as the sun sunk lower in the sky.  As all the other students cleared out, Nora calculated their next move.

She grabbed Ren’s wrist as a pair of Ravenclaw students wandered back toward the castle.  “Now!”

They ran toward Hagrid’s hut and knocked on his door.  “I told you not to come,” he said sternly, but let them inside.

Nora leapt up and wrapped her arms around Hagrid’s neck.  “We couldn’t let you be alone.”

“Isn’t there anything Ozpin can do?” Ren asked as he went and took the steaming kettle off of the stove.

“He tried,” Hagrid said, lowering Nora to the ground.  “He doesn’t have the power to change their minds. Money speaks louder than words ‘n’ all that.”  He paused. “But he’s gonna come...when it happens. Says I don’t have to be alone. Good man, that Ozpin is.”

“We’re staying too, Hagrid,” Nora insisted.

“No, you’re not.  I don’t want you watching.  You’re to get back to the castle--where you’re supposed to be anyway.  You’ll only cause more trouble for yourselves and for me if you’re here.”

A knock at the door startled them.  “Get!” Hagrid hissed, and opened his back door.  Nora and Ren knew that arguing would only make things worse and slipped out.  Hagrid shut it quietly, and they heard the front door open, and voices and footsteps approaching the side of the cabin where Buckbeak was tethered in his paddock.

Nora lead Ren to the opposite side of the cabin, and sat underneath the small window with her back pressed flat against the wall.

The sound of an axe hitting its mark sliced through the air.

Ren let out a sob.

 

Ruby and Yang stayed out as long as they could, just enjoying themselves as the school year drew to a close.

“We’d better pack up,” Ruby said, catching the frisbee one final time.  The sun was sinking lower and lower on the horizon, and they’d be in trouble if they weren’t in the Tower by curfew.

Suddenly, another black bird flew by and Morrigan took off the top of her cage and soared after it.  “Morrigan!” Yang shouted, dashing after her pet with Ruby hot on her heels.

As they ran, they got closer to the edge of Hogwarts’ property and Ruby became nervous.  Dementors still guarded the school. Neither she nor Yang could ward them off like Nora. What if they decided to chase the errant students?

Something struck the ground next to Ruby’s foot and she screamed.

Nearby, she heard Yang scream too, but hers sounded more pained than surprised.

“Yang!”

“Ruby!”

Ruby took her wand out of her pocket.  “Lumos!” The light illuminated a giant tree, whose branches swung through the air and struck whatever was in their path.  

Yang stood up from where she’d fallen, blood matting her blonde hair to her head.  She pointed towards a hole in the roots of the tree. “They went through there,” she gasped.  “But I don’t know how we can follow them. The tree is too fast, Ruby.”

Ruby thought for a moment.  “I could use a shrinking charm,” she said slowly.  “I shrink you. You shrink me. Smaller targets are harder to hit, right?”

Yang shrugged.  “There’s always the chance if we get hit, we die.  But I haven’t got a better idea. Do you think that thing can aim?”

“I hope not,” Ruby answered.  She turned towards her sister.  “Reducio!”

“Reducio!”

The girls found themselves standing about as tall as a housecat.  Ruby took a deep breath and watched the tree whale on its surroundings.  “Ready?”

“Ready,” Yang agreed, brushing her hair out of her eyes.

They ran straight into the fray.  Ruby had to dodge a branch that almost came down on her shoulder, Yang dove forward to evade one particularly springy bough that nearly concussed her.  Although they couldn’t have had to travel more than a few meters, those few meters were terrifying and adrenaline-fueled as the girls avoided branches coming at them from all direction.  Branches that might kill them if they hit their miniature forms. Finally, they reached the hole at the bottom of the tree and slid in, both feeling as if they had barely escaped with their lives.  

They caught their breath for a minute, looking at each other in their wandlight.  “You look like a mess,” Yang told Ruby.

“Look who’s talking,” Ruby shot back, climbing forward through the tunnel, which they could only fit into at all because of their reduced size.  “Come on, before Morrigan gets away.”

Yang followed her sister.

They walked for what felt like forever through the dark, cold tunnel, knowing that they couldn’t go back.  The birds had long gone, but Ruby and Yang couldn’t just let their pet go. 

“Professor Trelawney said something really weird during my exam,” Ruby said, and she told Yang about the Dark Mistress and Professor Trelawney’s odd behavior.

“Maybe she thought it would be funny,” Yang said.  “Maybe she was just high off of the perfume in her room.  Whatever it was, I can’t really take her seriously after she believed my story about you being crushed by a falling train.”

“But you didn’t see her,” Ruby insisted.  “It was really weird...almost like she didn’t know what she was even saying.  I dunno, I just feel like...this was different from her other predictions, Yang.  She sounded really confused I’d even ask her about it.”

Their conversation got cut off as light entered the tunnel from a hole just around the corner, the dull glow of moonlight.

“Nox,” the girls whispered, and extinguished their wandlights as they crept closer to the end of the passage.  They emerged from the hole in the wall in a messy room that long looked as if it had been abandoned. The paint on the walls had chipped and moss grew in the corners.  Someone had boarded up the windows and doors. Papers and trinkets lay scattered about the floor--but the furniture had been absolutely wrecked, with a bookshelf half-collapsed and lying on its side, a chair which had huge chunks gouged out of the wood, and a desk with a huge hole taken out of the top.

Ruby and Yang returned each other to their normal size before surveying the decrepit space, which smelled of decay and mold.  “What is this place?” Ruby asked.

“I think...it’s almost gotta be the Shrieking Shack,” Yang answered, turning to look around her.  “I saw this passage on that map.”

“Which you got rid of...right?” Ruby reminded her, following her sister up the stairs as they looked through the house for Morrigan.

“‘Course,” Yang muttered.  She was too focused on trying to navigate in the dark to give a real answer.

They went through the first door at the top of the stairs, which let out into a bedroom.  Morrigan sat perched on a windowsill, cawing at her owners.

“There you are!” Yang shouted, jogging toward the agitated bird, which flew onto her shoulder.  “Bad raven. Very bad raven!” she scolded her quietly.

The door shut behind them. With all the windows boarded up, there wasn’t enough of a gust through the bedroom for the door to have closed on its own.  “Yang…” Ruby said nervously.

The man hidden in the shadows stepped out into a patch of moonlight cast into the room through a hole in the roof.

“I was hoping you girls would run after your birdie and damn the consequences…” the pale, thin man with ragged black hair said quietly.  “Raven would have done the same thing.”

“Don’t you dare talk about my mom,” Yang rasped out as her throat became choked by sudden tears.  

Ruby gripped her hand, holding her more impulsive sister back.

“You killed her.”  Yang’s voice gained strength as she forced her tears back.  “You don’t have the right to say a word about her, DO YOU HEAR ME?”

Qrow didn’t even flinch.  “Come on, Yang, you don’t know the whole story…”

Yang tore her arm from Ruby’s grasp and ran for Qrow, who caught her head with the palm of his hand, holding her back.  “Firecracker--”

Yang’s foot found his knee and Qrow collapsed to the ground, moaning in pain.  Yang pulled out her wand, and Ruby followed suit. “Are you going to kill me?” Qrow asked.

“You killed our moms,” Yang said.  “You don’t deserve to live, you piece of shit.”  She spit, and it landed on his hair.

“You girls still don’t know what really happened,” Qrow pleaded with them.

“No, we heard it pretty clearly,” Ruby said quietly.  “Heard all the teachers discussing it. All the other students avoiding Yang.”

“They don’t have the whole story.  Please, listen to me. Don’t do something you’ll regret later.”

They stood their, two wands trained on a killer, nobody willing to make a move lest it result in the death of one they were trying to save.

Floorboards creaked below them. 

“HELP!” Ruby screamed.  “Upstairs, please help!”

Their father appeared in the doorway, his own wand raised.  “Girls, stand down.”

“But--” Yang said.

“Stand down, Yang!” Taiyang snapped at her, using a tone that Ruby and Yang rarely ever heard.  “Step back, and lower your wands,” he instructed the girls.

Shocked, they did just that.

“Late as always, Tai,” Qrow said from where he lay in the corner.  

“You said she was here.  Where?” Taiyang asked.

Qrow pointed at Yang.  “Me?” Yang asked.

“No,” Qrow replied.  “Your bird.”

“You know how much this changes, Qrow.”

“And that’s why I wouldn’t have told you unless I was dead certain,” Qrow answered.  “And I am dead certain, Tai.”

In two strides, Taiyang crossed the room and lifted Qrow to his feet, wrapping him in a hug. 

“Dad!”

“What are you doing?” the girls exclaimed simultaneously, both looking absolutely shocked.  

“He killed mom,” Ruby said quietly.  “How--what--why?”

The two men ended their embrace.  Taiyang reached into the pocket of his robes and pulled out a tattered piece of parchment.  “Do you remember this?”

Qrow examined it.  “It’s our old map. Heh.  Didn’t know they kept this around.”

“Filch had confiscated it, and I think just intended to hold onto it until it crumbled to dust,” Taiyang said.  “But then someone got detention for throwing Dungbombs,” he looked pointedly at Yang, “and stole this out of his office.  I know, because I talked to Filch, and the last time he saw it was the day before you decided to try out your cheap jokes from Zonko’s, Yang.  So when you didn’t show up for dinner tonight, I took a guess as to where it might be.”

“Yang!” Ruby admonished.  “You told me you’d destroyed it!”

“Yeah, well...I forgot,” Yang lied.  “But how’d you figure out how to use it, Dad?”

Taiyang smiled.  “Qrow and I, we wrote that map.  But once I saw it--saw Raven on it, heading for Qrow and the passage under the Whomping Willow--I came to intervene.”

“Her name’s Morrigan, Dad,” Yang said.  “And wait--”

“Her name’s Raven, Yang,” Qrow said.  “She’s an Animagus. You probably think of her as your mother.”

Yang just gaped at them.

“But you killed her!” Ruby insisted.  “Morrigan’s just a bird…”

Qrow shook his head.  “My sister was the biggest bitch I ever met,” he growled.  “Let me rot in jail for twelve years.”

Taiyang put his hand on Qrow’s shoulder.  “They deserve an explanation, Qrow, not senseless violence.”

Qrow shrugged Tai off, using more force than necessary.  “Tell ‘em later.”

“They need to know, Qrow!”  Taiyang’s voice returned to a normal volume.  “I’ve already kept the truth from them once. I don’t want to do it again.”

Qrow threw his hands in the air.  “Fine! Just be quick.”

“How can an entire neighborhood be wrong?” Yang said.  “You know they saw you kill her.”   
“People see what they want to see,” Qrow scoffed, only to be glared at by Taiyang.

“The map doesn’t lie, Yang,” Taiyang told his daughter gently.  “Nor can it be fooled by potions or disguises.”

“But there’s still the problem of Morrigan,” Ruby interjected.  “How could we have found her in a pet store if she’s an Animagus?  It just...it doesn’t sound possible.”

Qrow snorted.  “One: my sister probably got into the pet store by being her manipulative self.  Two: no one would have known a raven Animagus was even wandering around--nor a crow, for that matter--because we never registered ourselves.  Raven and I, we did it for fun. To see what would happen if we tried. We didn’t want the Ministry on our backs, if you know what I mean...but we wanted that freedom above anything else.  So yeah: we’re both Animangi. When I killed her, she called me a traitor, blew out the ground beneath her, and flew away like the COWARD SHE IS!” He bellowed that last part.

“And now you want to kill her?” Ruby asked.

“She betrayed all of us, Tai!”

“Girls, what you heard in the Three Broomsticks,” Tai explained, “they got it backwards.  Raven went Dark. Raven summoned the Grimm. Qrow went after Raven.”

“They’re not going to believe us, Tai,” Qrow explained.  “Not without some sort of proof.”

In one quick motion, Taiyang reached out and snatched Morrigan off of Yang’s shoulder.  The raven flapped and squacked at the unwelcome capture.

“What are you doing?” Yang demanded.

“If she’s a real raven, it won’t hurt her,” Qrow said.

They watched as Taiyang drew his wand with his other hand and pointed it at Morrigan.  A flash of light came from the wand, then Taiyang dropped the raven, who didn’t try to fly away.  In fact, she didn’t stay a raven much longer.

A woman stood in front of them, barely shorter than Yang, her thick, black hair tied up in a ponytail.  She wore ragged, red robes and a steely expression.

“Hello, brother,” she said.  “Come to kill me again?”

“Don’t play dumb with me, Raven,” Qrow answered.  “I did what I did because you were going to destroy yourself.”  He pushed himself away from the wall he was leaning against, and moved towards her.  “And the rest of us with you, of course.”

“And you claim that I’d destroy everything we ever dreamed of when you’re the one who’s got the Dark abilities, Qrow?  How else would you have escaped from Azkaban?”

Qrow faced her.  “Don’t lie to your daughter, Raven.  You’re the one who gave into Salem’s lies.  Not me. Not ever.” He put both hands against her chest and shoved her back.

“Don’t you bring my daughter into this,” she said quietly.  “This is between you and me. You’re not going to ruin anyone else’s life, Qrow.  I should have killed you when I had the chance.” She shoved back.

Qrow tackled her and the two fell onto the floor in a heap.  Raven kicked Qrow in the groin, and as he howled in pain, flipped him over, but he grabbed her arm and pulled her back down, and kicked her in the stomach.  She responded by raking her nails across his face, and he threw her down, knocking the wind out of her.

“Stop it!” Ruby’s shout made both adults pause for a minute.  “Please, please don’t kill each other!” she pleaded. 

Taiyang pulled Qrow off Raven as he began to punch her in the face, his arms swinging madly.  “Tai! She killed your wife!”

“If you want revenge, get revenge on your own time, Qrow.  And not,” he emphasized the last word, “in front of my girls.  Got it?”

“Please, Qrow,” Raven said, standing.  “My daughter is present.”

“Oh,  _ now  _ it’s okay to bring Yang into this!”

Yang went from looking shocked and bewildered to furious.  “Oh, SHUT UP! I’m not a bargaining chip! Stop acting like I’m something you can trade!”  Yang turned to her mother. “You lived in my room for a year! A year! Why didn’t you,” she blinked back tears, “why didn’t you say anything?  Do anything?”

Raven walked over and caressed Yang’s cheek.  “Some things are bigger than us.”

“Yes, Yang.  Some things are bigger than your mother.  Things like personal responsibility. Caring for others.  Bravery,” Qrow added.

“Qrow,” Taiyang warned him.

“But how did you get out of Azkaban without Dark magic?” Ruby asked Qrow.

“He didn’t,” Raven snarled, but Qrow held up a hand, silencing her.

“I’m not sure,” he finally said.  “I guess...I just knew I was innocent.  That I hadn’t killed those people. And since that’s not a happy thought, since I still ended up in Azkaban, the Dementors couldn’t get at it.  I could hold on to it. Since I remembered who I was, I kept some of my power. Just enough to turn into a crow. So I did that from time to time, whenever it all got too much and I felt like I was gonna lose my mind.  That’s the thing about Dementors, Ruby. They can’t see, and they can’t tell the difference between human and animal emotions. So when they came to do inspections and I heard some Aurors discussing how Taiyang’s kids had just gotten a raven, and it seemed pretty attached to them...I couldn’t risk it.  Your dad was the last friend I ever had.” Qrow looked away from her. “So I knew, if I could protect you, make sure that your raven wasn’t Raven, then I could repay him for his kindness. I flew out between the bars, out of Azkaban, and to Hogwarts. I’ve been living in the Forbidden Forest ever since, keeping an eye on you.”  He looked back to Ruby and Yang. “I would have sacrificed myself if it meant saving Summer. She was a better woman than me by far. Please, I didn’t kill her.”

And it was the sheer pain in his eyes that made Ruby believe him.  

She nodded, looking stunned.

Raven turned to appeal to Yang.  “Please understand, Yang. I missed you every moment I missed seeing you and I hated, hated that I couldn’t tell you who I was.  I truly wish I could have seen you grow up.”

Yang met her gaze, and for a moment, the entire room held its breath.  “You had an entire year in which you could have said or done something, Mom.  You lost your chance.”

“Tai, get the girls out of here,” Qrow said, slamming his fist into his palm.  “I’m going to give my sister what she deserves.”

“No!” Ruby screamed, reaching out her arm toward Raven, who looked stunned.  “No one here needs to die tonight. Can’t we just, I dunno, turn her in and send her to Azkaban?”

Taiyang walked over to his younger daughter and put his hand on her shoulder.  “Ruby’s right. Raven’s death won’t solve anything. In fact, if Raven doesn’t testify, there’s no chance for you not to get sent back to Azkaban anyway because the position they found you in was damning, Qrow.  Right now, apart from what’s in her head,” Taiyang nodded at Raven, “there’s no way on Earth you’ll be acquitted.”

“Then we take her back to Hogwarts with us,” Qrow said, but he didn’t look happy about it.

“I’ll get her,” Taiyang said, and pulled his wand from his robes.  With a wave, ropes shot from the end and wrapped themselves around Raven, binding her arms to her body.

Raven glared at him.  

“And don’t even think about trying to transform,” Qrow threatened her.

 

Raven made her move when they were crawling through the tunnels back to the Hogwarts grounds.

She transformed.

Taiyang, whom had tied her to him with a length of the same rope with which she’d been bound, felt the slack instantly, but he barely had time to look back before claws and a beak dove for his face.

As he raised his arms to protect himself, he left his wand unguarded in his pocket.  Raven swooped and grabbed it, flying back out towards the Shrieking Shack.

“Damnit!”

Immediately, Qrow transformed to fly after her, and Raven transformed back, lying on her stomach in the middle of the tunnel. “Reducto!” she cried, and the tunnel caved in.  Qrow got caught in the falling rocks, transforming back to human as earth covered his body.

When the dust cleared, Raven was nowhere to be seen.

Moonlight lit the tunnel through the hole, illuminating their muddy faces and dirty robes.  Qrow moaned, his eyes opening. “What happened?”

“She ran, Qrow,” Tai said.

“‘Course she ran,” Qrow grumbled.  He tried to shift, but fell back. “I’m stuck, Tai.  My arm and leg are pinned.”

“Crap,” Tai whispered.  He looked to Ruby and Yang, who had been ahead of them when Raven had made her move (which had been incredibly lucky, in hindsight).  Their father looked up through the hole. “Ruby, Yang. Can you climb out here and go back to the castle to get help? I’m going to see what I can do to get your uncle out.”

He climbed over Qrow and laced his fingers together, creating a step.  “Yang, climb up  _ carefully _ , and I’ll boost you.”

Yang did as she was asked, picking her way through the fallen dirt and rubble to her father, and put one foot in his hands.  

“Jump when I say.”

Tai pushed his hands upward.  “Jump!” 

Yang caught the edge of the hole easily and clambered out, even as more dirt and grass crumbled beneath her fingers.

“Watch out for your sister!” 

A moment later, Ruby appeared in the hole, and Yang grabbed her arms, helping to pull her out.

They looked out through the night.  The lights from the castle seemed awfully far away.  “Aw, we’re still on the other side of the lake!” Yang said.  

Ruby darted onto the path back to the castle ahead of her sister.  “Come on!”

Together, they dashed through the cool night air, their footsteps pounding on the worn dirt beneath their feet. 


	19. Near Misses

To be honest, Nora and Ren had no idea how they were going to get back into the castle without being caught.

Once Ren had recovered enough and the men had retreated back into Hagrid’s cabin to finish the paperwork, they’d started picking their way back across the grounds towards the castle.  Neither one could come up with any idea better than going through one of the back doors to the castle and hoping that they wouldn’t run into a teacher as they made their way back to Gryffindor Tower.  And that really didn’t count as a plan at all.

Now they crouched just outside the North Wall, knowing that they’d come dangerously close to the edge of the Hogwarts grounds.  But Nora couldn’t see any Dementors at the moment. “This is very odd,” Ren whispered. 

Nora took her wand from her pocket and held it up.  They’d avoided using wandlight in the hopes that it would make them less visible, and she wasn’t going to start now.  This was just too suspicious. She wanted to be prepared...just in case.

They crept forward, sticking close to the wall and hiding in its shadow, until they reached the curve in the fortification and looked out over the lake.

Two people, running furiously toward them, but flagging quickly.  The fact that they couldn’t continue on was evident in only the few seconds Nora and Ren watched.

The reason for this became obvious quickly.

More Dementors than Nora had ever seen floated behind them, their arms outstretched.

But the figures...they were too small for teachers, right?  And a teacher would have already cast a Patronus.

Nora’s heart dropped as the realization hit her.  They were students.

 

Ruby and Yang felt the Dementors before they even knew that anything was following them.  

First, the cold nipped at their heels, crawling up their legs and sinking deep, deep into their bones, forming bottomless pits in their stomachs.  Despair settled into these holes, consuming their hearts and their hope.

But they had to keep running.  They had to.

Then they forgot why they ran.  It was all so hopeless. Summer was still dead.  With Raven gone, no one would ever believe them. Their dad would be fired, they’d probably be kicked out of Hogwarts...what was the point?  

They slowed down without realizing it as the weight of all the struggles and sadness they’d ever had to face in their lives came crashing down on their shoulders, first slowly, and then all at once.

 

“Ren, be happy,” Nora commanded him.

“What?”

“Just be happy!  Think happy thoughts!”

Ren grasped her hand.  “Whatever you’re about to do, Nora--”

“There’s no time!”  Nora brandished her wand in front of her.  As the cold approached her too, she closed her eyes, she remembered the roof.  She remembered the feeling of the hot shingles beneath her legs as they cooled in the breezy night air.  She remembered the feeling of Ren’s warmth against her body as they comforted each other, two misfit orphans, misunderstood even amongst the misunderstood.  She remembered as they held their letters, knowing that they had a destiny beyond public schools and GEDs and cashier jobs and drugs and crime. She remembered looking up at the stars and feeling the vastness of the world around her, the new possibilities open to them.  She concentrated on the elation underneath the realization that she had a best friend, a home, and a future, all waiting for her on the other side of that train ride.

“Expecto patronum!” Nora opened her eyes.

The Dementors began to float backwards as a hugely powerful winged horse galloped towards them, its silvery mane brightening the moonlit night and leaving glittering trails in its wake.  Once the stallion forced the Dementors back into the shadows, they ran forward to see who they’d encountered.

“It’s Ruby and Yang,” Ren gasped, staring down at their unconscious friends.

 

Down in the tunnel, Taiyang finished shifting the rubble off of Qrow.  Thankfully, he didn’t seem too badly injured--bruised and sprained, certainly, but no fractures or breaks anywhere.  

“You took me by surprise,” Taiyang told Qrow.  “Hit me, stunned me, took my wand and ran off and I couldn’t catch you.”

A devious smile crossed Qrow’s face.  “I see,” he said, and his fist crashed into Taiyang’s cheek, sending his friend flying backwards into the dark tunnel.

A minute later, Taiyang reappeared under the light in the hole.  He had a cut on his cheek from one of Qrow’s rings and spat blood onto the ground.  He’d have a nice bruise later.

“You need to go,” Tai told Qrow.  “Fly away and don’t come back.”

Qrow shook his head.  “I can help, there has to be something I can do--”

“If you stay, you’ll only be captured,” Tai snapped.  “Get out of here while you have the chance.”

Without warning, Qrow reached for Taiyang and pulled him into an unsteady hug.  Taiyang had to hold him up as Qrow wrapped his arms around Tai’s shoulders. “Thank you.”

Tai pushed him away.  “Now get.”

Qrow shifted into a crow, and flew away.

 

“No, I’ll take Ruby,” Ren said, nudging Nora away from the smaller girl.  “You’re stronger anyway.”

“Yang would be so mad if she heard you say that,” Nora replied, kneeling next to the shorter girl and struggling to lift her up.  They ended up half-dragging their classmates back towards the castle.

Oobleck met them outside the doors into the courtyard, jogging towards them.  “Is everyone all right?” he asked. 

“We found them,” Nora struggled to catch her breath.  “The Dementors. By the lake.”

“Put them down,” Oobleck told them, the moon’s glare on his round glasses giving him white disks for eyes.  He waved his wand and cast a quick spell, which summoned two stretchers beneath the girls and levitated them ahead of him.  “There will be many questions later, all of which you are expected to answer. Do you understand?”

“We know, Professor,” Ren said, and they hiked the rest of the way back to the castle right on his heels, and followed him to the hospital wing.


	20. Status Quo

Oobleck told Ren and Nora to stay in the hospital wing while he went to get the other staff who would need to hear their account of the evening.  “Best just to have everyone in one place, Poppy. This whole situation’s out of control as it is,” Oobleck told their unhappy warden, but at least she gave them chocolate to help defeat the last tendrils of cold that lingered in their bones.

It wasn’t long before Ruby and Yang began to stir, and conversation began outside of the Hospital Wing.

“Despite the danger they put themselves in by doing so, Nora and Ren probably saved Ruby and Yang’s lives by being on the grounds after curfew,” Oobleck was saying.  “I hate to imagine what would have happened if they had been out there on their own.”

A voice they vaguely recognized as belonging to the Minister of Magic responded to him.  “And the girl cast a Patronus on her own?”

“She’s demonstrated the ability before, although I have no idea where she would have picked up the skill.”  A pause. “Perhaps Miss Valkyrie should be more carefully monitored over the summer in order to make sure she doesn’t accidentally expose herself….”

“I feel that perhaps leniency should be applied in this case, Bartholomew--not to encourage misbehavior, but simply to reward her ability to have gone above and beyond in her studying--especially given the circumstances.”

Ruby sat up slowly, looking around in a daze.  “What happened?” she asked.

“I feel like we need to ask you the same thing,” Nora said.  

At that moment, the door to the hospital wing opened again and Madam Pomfrey ushered Taiyang through the door and began to bustle around, handing out ice for their teacher’s bruised face and chocolate for the children who still felt despair lingering in their bones.

“Dad!” Ruby exclaimed, seeing her father.  

But her dad had begun talking to the Minister, Ozpin, and Oobleck, telling a story he must have come up with to protect them.  At least, that was the only reason Ruby could think of for him not telling the truth.

“Glynda went to get me when my daughters and their friend Miss Valkyrie had not been seen for several hours, not even after curfew had passed.  Their friend Blake Belladonna apparently reported them missing.”

“Ghira’s daughter?” the Minister asked, surprised.

“Yes,” Taiyang said, resuming his story.  “I found Ruby and Yang confronting Branwen about halfway between the castle and the far side of the lake.  He was threatening to kill them, to kill me--really not making a lot of sense, to be honest. I caught him by surprise, I think.  He started chasing me, which let them get away. I tried to stop him--threw some Stunning Spells, blew a hole in the ground trying to trap him--but when I got close to him, he clocked me and knocked me out.  I didn’t expect for him to straight-up hit me, although considering how he acted back when we were in school, I shouldn’t have been surprised. I had no idea what was going to happen.” Taiyang looked away from the Minister.  “I hate that he got away. I hate that I couldn’t catch him. But I’m glad he didn’t hurt my daughters.”   
The genuine remorse in his voice surprised Ruby and Yang.

“And why were you girls outside?”

To Ruby’s surprise, Yang spoke up.  “Our pet raven flew away. We were looking for her, and I just--”

“We didn’t really notice that it was getting dark until it was nighttime,” Ruby interjected when Yang’s voice caught.  “By then, we’d already missed curfew.”

“Then this guy, Branwen, came out of nowhere and started just screaming at us,” Yang said, picking up for Ruby.  “He looked and smelled like he’d been living in a sewer. Talked like it too.”

“Yeah, he didn’t make a ton of sense.”

“Then Dad shows up and chases him off and tells us to go get help, but the Dementors--”

“They just came out of nowhere,” Ruby whispered.

“We saved you,” Nora said.  “We went to try and comfort Hagrid--for the execution,” Nora said.

“Wait, what?” 

“Buckbeak!  The hippogriff that Cardin insulted, they were going to execute him,” Nora explained.  “We...we just wanted to help Hagrid.” Nora looked almost bashful. 

“We knew we would be breaking the rules,” Ren said.  “But I assumed that we would be safe since Nora could perform the Patronus charm.”

“We know we messed up,” Nora said, looking at her hands.  “And we know we could have been in real danger.”

“Perhaps, in this case, we should be glad that you decided to disregard the rules, Miss Valkyrie,” Ozpin said quietly.  “And that you encountered your friends when you did.”

“Ozpin, this is a scandal,” the Minister said, looking over the people sitting in front of him.  “Black ran around  _ your _ school, nearly killed  _ your  _ students, and not even your Defense teacher--an Auror--could capture him!  The  _ Daily Prophet _ will drag us all through the mud for this!”

“I am less concerned about my reputation than I am about these students, Cornelius,” Ozpin said.  “We were lucky that nobody died. Those Dementors must go. I will not have a repeat of this incident, no matter whether or not escaped prisoners happen to be running around at the moment.”

“Absolutely.  Bloody useless things anyway,” the Minister said under his breath.  “Since Branwen just gallivanted in and out as he pleased anyway…”

“Excuse me, gentlemen,” Madam Pomfrey said, from where she stood with a plate of chocolate, “but if you have the information you need, I must insist that you leave so my patients can rest.”

“Of course,” Professor Ozpin said, nodding to Ruby and Yang.

Nora and Ren followed the adults from the room.

 

Yang and Ruby were released from the hospital wing the next morning, and they immediately ran to their father’s office.  

“Why did you lie to Professor Ozpin?” Ruby wanted to know.

Taiyang leaned back against his desk.  “I lied because no one would believe the real story.  Not without Raven to back us up. You’re young and easily influenced.  Everyone knows I was friends with Qrow at school. Three people with conflicts of interests and their testimonies won’t be able to touch the testimonies of everyone that saw Raven die in the street and watched a massacre begin in their town.”  He turned away from them. “But now really isn’t the time or place to talk about what happened last night. I was actually going to find you girls anyway. I’m not teaching at Hogwarts next year.”

“Why?” Yang asked.  “You were a great teacher.”

“I,” Taiyang pointed at himself to emphasize that, “let Branwen go.  Ozpin and I already know that what I said happened will be leaked to the press.  Other parents aren’t going to be happy. They’ll claim that I’m incompetent and a bad Auror.  I’ll be investigated already when I return to working for the Ministry. I have to do everything I can to make sure I look like I regret what happened, that it’s the worst mistake in the world, essentially, or else they’ll suspect me of actually working with Qrow, which would put me in Azkaban.  And I’d much rather be able to be with you girls than anywhere else.”

Yang looked up at him.  “But my mom, she...well, it seemed like she didn’t want me.”  Instead of her usual confidence, Yang sounded sad and almost...small.

Taiyang wrapped his eldest daughter in a hug.  “I know,” he said, rubbing her back as she started to cry.  “If things had been different, it would be a different story, Yang.”

“You’ll always have us, Yang,” Ruby offered, from where she stood awkwardly.

“It’s just...I always dreamed of what my mom would be like.  What I’d say to her if I could talk to her. And then she just...she doesn’t care.  She doesn’t say anything to me.” Yang wiped the tears away from her face. “It’s like she forgot about me.”

“I don’t think she forgot you, Yang,” Taiyang reassured her, keeping one hand on her back.  “The right combination of things went wrong at the worst possible time.”

Ruby looked up from her fidgeting hands.  “Last night didn’t change anything, did it?”  An expression of anxiety crossed her face.

“I’m afraid not,” Taiyang said sadly.  “Not in any of the ways we wanted it to.”

Silence filled the room, punctuated only by Yang’s sniffles.  

“Dad,” Ruby asked.  “Who’s Salem?”

“Where did you hear that name?”

“Qrow said it.  Last night.”

Taiyang looked at his empty bookshelf, seeming to struggle to choose the correct words.  “Salem is one of the Old Gods, the ones witches and wizards used to worship. She was known as the Dark Mistress, and her domain was magic used to hurt others--a lot of what we call Dark today was created by her followers.  But today--talking about the Old Gods is taboo unless you’re part of a powerful family, like the Branwens or the Schnees. No one believes in them anymore, and the destruction, bloodshed, and perversion of magic and wizardry that occured during that period is mostly glossed over in history.”

Ruby gasped.  “I’ve heard that term before!  Dark Mistress! Professor Trelawney said it.”  And she told her family about the prophecy she’d heard.

“Huh,” Taiyang said when she’d finished.  “Sometimes she does get one right.”

 

In comparison to what they’d just experienced, the rest of the school year passed uneventfully for the Gryffindor students.  They all did relatively well on their exams and attended the small memorial service Hagrid held for Buckbeak. On the train ride home, everyone promised to stay in touch--and perhaps to even see each other at the Quidditch World Cup that summer.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading. Comments and kudos are always greatly appreciated.


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